A Crossing of Ways tenative title
by Aquilia
Summary: This story is complicated, and cannot be explained well in this summary. If you are interested, just read it, and all will hopefully become clear. I just hope I put it under the right category...


Prologue

In his world, Shane Gilmore was very odd. With his piercing, dark blue eyes, his lanky frame, and his, for someone who played video games all the time, surprisingly dark complexion, he was like no one he knew. But the thing that set him apart the most was his quite long, very curly, jet black hair. He did not dress like anyone else either, or at least not like any other seventeen year old boys. His entire wardrobe consisted of hunter green shirts, black jeans, a weathered dark green baseball cap with a Triforce symbol on it, and black tennis shoes. However, at this time, his looks and clothes were the last thing on his mind, as he was flying through a strange vortex. Seconds earlier, out of nowhere, he was sucked into a swirling, multicolored vortex, the likes of which no one had ever seen before. But before he could even start to figure out what it was, it suddenly vanished as quickly and mysteriously as it had appeared, dropping Shane on a mountain, in a place which he had never seen, yet seemed strangely familiar. As he walked along and pondered where he was, day turned to night, he entered a large field, and he heard the howling of a wolf. Out of nowhere the wolf appears, and suddenly it dawns on him where he is. As the Wolfos closes in he whispers, almost inaudibly, "Hyrule."

Chapter 1: Rescue

As the Wolfos comes closer, Shane realizes that he has no means of defense, and frantically searches for some kind of weapon, but can find nothing. He starts thinking to himself that this is the end, and watches the Wolfos rear back for a blow. As he braces himself for the attack, he sees an arrow shaft penetrating the Wolfos, and the enemy disappearing in smoke. A man in a black cloak holding a bow appears from behind a tree and says, "These are dangerous times, you need to be more careful." Shane replies, "Thanks for the help, but who are you?" The man swiftly answers, "That isn't important, what is important right now is that you come with me, for you are in more danger than you could ever know, and I cannot save you from it." "Why should I trust you, you won't even tell me your name?" Shane asks angrily as he backs up, trying to put some distance between him and the mysterious man. The man answers, "Look behind you, and you'll find out why." He does just that, and to his surprise, he sees a small army of no less than fifty Stalfos racing toward him, and with a look of shock on his face cries, "Run!" In the small amount of time he was looking at the army, he saw that some of the Stalfos have bows, which they are utilizing to rain arrows down on Shane and the man in the cloak. As Shane is watching in horror at the arrows coming straight for him, he doesn't see the man in the cloak running at him at full speed, nor does he see that the cloak has fallen off. He reaches Shane an instant before the arrows do, grabs him, and throws down a pellet that makes a green flash, and all that the arrows penetrate is a black cloak.

Chapter 2: The Portal

Sora was enjoying what he knew to be the last day of relaxation he would have for a long time. It had been about a month since he defeated Xemnas and the Nobodies, and received the letter from King Mickey. The contents of the letter were basically what he had expected them to be; the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee, as they were called now, had found a new room containing a portal and an inscription, which read _"The portal may only be used by a Keybearer, and when the split leader is defeated." _Obviously, this meant that there were only three people able to go through it; Sora, Riku, and The King. As he, Riku, and Kairi pondered this while lying on the beach, Sora saw the gummi ship was about to land. All three of them got up when they saw that their close friends, Donald and Goofy, were coming out of the ship. The three that were lying on the beach ran over excitedly to meet their friends, which they hadn't seen during the entire two week period. As they exchanged greetings and news, Riku, the more business-minded one, inquired to Donald, "So where exactly does this portal that they found go?" "Well, no one is sure yet, not even Leon or Cid." replied Donald in his squeaky voice. "Well," said Sora, "the only way we can find out is by going through it, so let's get going." Goofy and Donald agreed with what he said, so they all got into the gummi ship and took off, but for some reason Riku decided to stay behind. "Why aren't you coming?" asked Sora. "Well," replied Riku, "I just really don't think you will need me there, since you can still use Final Form, and if you do, I can talk to you with this radio." "Ok," Sora says, "if you really want to" Once they were a good distance away, something showed up on the radar. It quickly came into view, but none of them were quite sure what it was or where it came from. More of them started to appear, and Sora said, "I haven't seen those since Xemnas was defeated..." The enemy vessels opened fire on the small gummi ship.

Chapter 3: An Explanation

(Tentative title)

What Shane was experiencing was a feeling he had never felt before, but it wasn't exactly good. It felt like he was being dragged along by his belt, a kind of pulling sensation at his waist, but he was being pulled very fast and very painfully. When he had gotten slightly used to it, he looked at his surroundings, which were entirely bright green, except for a patch of much darker green the size of him, that he realized had to be the man in the cloak. After what he guessed to be five seconds, the green disappeared, and the pulling stopped. He looked at his new surroundings, which happened to be the courtyard of a very large and impressive castle. Then he thought to look at the newly uncloaked man, who had a green tunic, a green hat, a pair of boots, and some white, loose, pants. His first question was, "OK, now that we're out of danger, who are you?" The man's reply was not quite what he expected though, "Well, since you appear to be from Zelda's dreams, I guess I can tell you. My name is Link." Shane was caught off guard by this, and it took a few seconds to register, but his mouth started before his brain did. "What do you mean I am from her drea- wait, did you just say your name was Link?" "Yes, I did." "Link, the Hero of Time?" "No, I am one of his descendants, but how can you even know about him? I have never seen you in Hyrule before." Shane, struggling to keep his fanboy instinct under control, replied, "Well, where I come from you are very famous, but that's not too important right now, tell me more about her dreams."

"Very well, Zelda, the Princess of Hyrule, has been having strange dreams lately, which she seems to interpret as that three great evils are approaching, and three heroes will rise up to fight them. One of the heroes is me, one has clothes the same as yours, so it appears that you are the second, but the third is slightly more clouded. All she can tell is that he wields some sort of key that is able to change shape. The only other thing that she can tell is that the three evil ones that we must fight are simply puppets under the control of an evil malevolent force." Shane thought over this for what seemed like an eternity, but was only a few minutes, and replied, "So after the evil on one world has been defeated, we go on to the next one. That doesn't seem too hard, now all we have to do is wait for the final hero. He's probably on his way here now."

Chapter 4: A Crossing of Ways: Pt. 1

At that time, the final hero was thinking that he might not even reach the Radiant Garden, let alone Hyrule. There were ships coming from nearly every direction, and the only weapon still left on the ship was a single laser. The only good thing about it being nearly weaponless is that it was much faster and more maneuverable than if it was loaded down with weapons. "Look to your left!" cried Donald. Sora did so, and saw a very large ship bearing down on them, trying to plow through them. He yelled to the passengers, "Hang on!" and sped up while pulling sharply up, narrowly missing the ship. "There it is, Radiant Garden!" screamed Kairi. If they could get close enough, Tron, the computer of Radiant Garden, would be able to use the turrets to destroy all of the enemy craft. All they had to do was survive for a few more minutes. "Almost there, come on." whispered Sora to himself. Suddenly two red lasers came from the Garden and obliterated the two closest craft. "We made it!" cries Goofy. But his celebration was short-lived, as one ship, seconds before it was decimated, hit them with a cannon blast. As Donald checked the monitors, he saw that the craft was severely damaged, and had to land immediately. They barely made it down in time, and as they did, their craft simply stopped working. Leon came up to greet them. "Close call, huh guys?" "Got that right, very close call," replied Sora, "but what is this portal that you wanted us to come and see?" "Well, we aren't quite sure yet. As far as we can see from the old library, either this portal has never been found until now, or they didn't think it was important enough to put in a book." "I guess then," said Sora with a grin, "the only way to find out is to check it ourselves." "OK then, let's go."

As they walked along the newly excavated halls, still filled with rubble, Sora asked, "But why was this only recently discovered? I thought that you had found everything in this castle." "Well," replied Leon hesitantly, "so did we, but this is proof that we haven't. Who knows what other secrets this castle holds? Oh look, we're here." They had come to a grand entryway that had some sort of strange writing on it, and Sora assumed that this was the inscription stating that only a Keybearer could enter the portal. As they entered the room, Sora realized that, apart from the massive portal, there was no one else in the room but the ones who had just entered. "Here it is," says Leon, "but do you know how to activate it?" "I'm as clueless as you are," replies Sora, "but my guess is that I have to use the Keyblade." "Look, there's a lock. Maybe you need to use the Keyblade on that." "Yeah, that might do it. I guess I'll try it." As Sora holds the Keyblade up to the keyhole, a bright light shoots out of it, and the portal lights up. As they all stare into the glowing, swirling, multicolored vortex, Sora begins to feel a strange sensation, like he is being pulled to the portal. As he tries to resist it, he realizes that he can't, and tries to call for help, but sees Leon, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy standing completely still, then screaming his name, Kairi's voice louder than all the rest, "Sora!!" Finally, he enters the portal. He is in such a state of shock that he doesn't have time to even look at his surroundings before being dropped on a mountaintop. As he finally starts to look at where he is, two figures come up, dressed in green shirts and one wearing a strange green hat with a triangular symbol on it. As Sora jumps to his feet, he simultaneously pulls out his Keyblade and yells, "Who are you?!"

Chapter 5: A Crossing of Ways: Pt. 2

As Link and Shane climb up a particularly steep section of Death Mountain, as Shane now knew it was called, Shane asked Link, "Remind me again why we are risking our lives climbing up this mountain." "Well," said Link in return, "this mountain is where Zelda thinks the final hero will appear, and it has played a major role in other crucial parts of Hyrule's history. It's where the first Link fought Volvagia, where he saved the entire Goron race, and where the Spiritual Stone of Fire is kept. There are very few other spots with that kind of history, but what makes me sure is the fact that you appeared on it." "Oh, OK, that seems about right. Is that the summit?" "Yes, we're there." As they cover the final stretch, they clear the ridge just in time to see a person dressed mostly in black appear.

As they go to see if he is the one they are looking for, he jumps up, takes out a long key from nowhere, and yells at them, "Who are you?!" Shane, being a long-time Kingdom Hearts fan, recognizes him instantly. He replies, "I'm Shane, this is Link, and if I'm not mistaken, you are Sora, the wielder of the Keyblade." Sora, obviously awestruck, answers, "Yes, but how did you know that?" "Well," says Shane, "where I come from, you are quite famous." "And is this your world?" "Wait a minute," cuts in Link, very irritated about not knowing about other worlds prior to Shane's arrival, "how do you know that there are other worlds already?" "Its not too surprising," replies Sora, "considering the fact that I have saved dozens of them, possibly even more, from Ansem and Xemnas."

"And who are they?" "What?" answers Sora, obviously shocked, "You've never heard of them? I thought everyone in my universe knew about Ansem and Xemnas, they tried to take over the worlds not too long ago." "Well," added an indignant Link, "have you ever thought that this is not a world that is even in your universe?" "Hmm... I guess that is a possibility, but why am I here?" "Because you are to save our three worlds, possibly even our universe, I'm not entirely sure." "OK then," says Sora, "let's get going then, no time to lose." "We will leave soon, but finding you is not the only reason we came to Death Mountain, we also came to see the Great Fairy to learn more about Zelda's dreams, and to get Shane a weapon."

Chapter 6: The Great Fairy

As they were climbing the wall to reach the Great Fairy, Sora asked Link, "Why are we doing this? There has to be a shortcut!" "There is," replied Link, "but it passes through the crater of the mountain, and seeing as I am the only one with a Goron Tunic, and we need everyone to even have an attempt at saving our worlds, we are going this way." "OK Link, since you are from here, you must know this land better than we do." They climbed on for several minutes without a word, Link killing Skullutas with his bow periodically, when Link added, "You know, I haven't seen Skullutas on these walls for a long time, it must be the work of whoever or whatever we are supposed to defeat." As they neared the top, Shane said, "Look, we're here." Sure enough, they had finally reached the top of the cliff. As they near the entrance to where the Great Fairy resided, Link noticed that it was once again sealed off. He said to the others, "Stay back, I need to use my bombs." He pulled out a blue, circular object about 8 inches in diameter with a fuse on one end, lit the fuse, and threw it at the wall, where it exploded spectacularly, shattering a wall where a cave led into. "Lets go." he said.

As they enter the cave, Sora asks what a fairy is. Link answers him, "Well, I've never seen one myself, but I have heard that they are creatures of great beauty, with voices worthy of the gods." "But Link," cut in Shane, "that's not at all wha-" "Shhh," said Link in a whisper, "he doesn't know that." "Wow," says Sora, oblivious, "I can't wait to get there." As they entered the cave and walked up to the fountain, there arose a loud cackling sound, and an ugly looking, tall woman arose out of the water. Upon seeing it, Sora cried, "That is the fairy?!" "Yes," said Link, "that is a Great Fairy." "But-but you said," Sora stuttered, "That it was very beauti-, oh, just forget it." Link walks up to the pedestal before the fountain and said to the fairy, "So what can you tell us about Zelda's dream?" The fairy answers in a voice worthy of a witch, "Zelda is right about her dream on all accounts, but there is more to it than she now knows. The three you must fight can think and act of their own accord, but are being guided by the evil force, even though they themselves do not know it. I know nothing more." "If that is all you can see at this time," said Link, "then we must ask for one more thing." "Anything that will help you in your quest I would be happy to give you." "Well then, Shane here needs a weapon." "Really? And what kind of weapon would you like Shane?" Shane pondered this for a minute, thinking of all the weapons he could use, and finally answered, "I guess I would like two swords, seeing as I'm ambidextrous, that seems like the best idea." "A very good choice Shane," said the fairy, "I have the two perfect swords here for you. They will help you to channel your power so you can use it faster and do more challenging things with it." She hands Shane two slender scabbards, and as he takes out the contents, he finds two, slender, slightly shimmering, golden swords with intricate designs along the length of the blade. "Thanks," replied Shane, "but how do you know if I have a power? As far as I know I don't." After he said this, the fairy sends an energy blast through Link's shoulder and he cries out in pain as he falls to the ground. Sora rushes over and is about to cure him with an elixir, when the fairy says, "Stop, do not touch him." "Link is injured and you did it!" cries Shane, "why shouldn't Sora cure him?" "You have to trust me. Link will be fine if you do as I say, Shane. Touch the wound in Link's shoulder and say Cure." As Shane does so, glowing rings form around him, and he feels a bit weaker. Link jumps back up, very surprised at being healed by Shane, and cries out, "What did he do?" Shane hesitantly replies, "I think I just healed you Link. Does the mean that I am-" "Yes, Shane, this means that you are an Adept."

Chapter 7: The Unveiling

"I'm an Adept?! How did you know? Even I had no idea!" cried Shane, still in shock from his new discovery. "I can sense power in all people that come to me." replied the fairy."But what kind of Adept am I?" inquired Shane, "Isn't Cure a Venus Psyenergy? And why am I an Adept?" "While that is true about Cure being associated with Venus," answered the fairy, "you are not a Venus Adept. You are one of a rare type of Adept called a Chrono Adept. Chrono Adepts are very rare, compared to other types, and there are never more than two of them at any one given time. Chrono Adepts are very powerful, and have many Psyenergies. Over time, they master the Psyenergies of all Adepts, although they are usually more skilled in one particular element. Yours seems to be Venus, seeing as you used Cure on your first try. They also gain power quite rapidly. As well as being masters of the elements, they have their own special Psyenergies, called Chrono Psyenergies, which have the ability to manipulate time, to a limited degree. A fully matured Chrono Adept can stop, rewind, fast-forward, slow down, and speed up time. They also have an ability called Play that allows them to return time to normal, but they cannot return things to life with their power. Also, their powers only affect whatever they want them to, whether it be just one person, or the entire world, though the latter takes much more energy. They cannot, however, affect another Chrono Adept. Also, with all Psyenergy, Chrono included, the louder you say the Psyenergy, the more powerful it will be. Chrono Adepts are very powerful, as they have immense stamina for casting Psyenergy. In a fully developed Chrono Adept even the most powerful normal Psyenergy barely tires them, but even with that much increased stamina it is a bit difficult to cast any Chrono Psyenergies. Because Chrono Psyenergy is so powerful, and so useful if you don't want to be seen, many of these types of Adepts turned to a life of crime or dictatorship after being taught by the only other Chrono Adept at that time. As you might have guessed by now, there is another Chrono Adept roaming a world at this time, and if you should ever meet him, can I trust you not to accept his offer of power?" "Are you kidding? You think I would desert my friends for a little power?" "Stronger ones than you have been corrupted for much less." "Well, I'm different. I have something anchoring me to this quest. My friends and my world. _Never_ would I desert them."

"Well then, I must answer your next question. You are an Adept because there were at one time Adepts on your planet, as on all planets, though on most their Psyenergy is very weak. They were a very powerful race, whose name has been lost in the mists of time. Many of the few Chrono Adepts came from this tribe, so it is not too surprising that you are one. If that is all you wish to know, then you can be on your way to continue your quest. The one you seek in this world is hidden in the Tower in the Sky. Normally, it cannot be seen, and to make it seen, you first need to find the Lens of Truth. The last known location of it is the Bottom of the Well, although nothing has been heard of it since the age of the Hero of Time. After you retrieve that, you must enter each of the six dungeons and retrieve the medallions that are hidden in the innermost chamber, but you must take great care, each of these medallions are guarded by a beast so deadly that of all those who have gone to retrieve the medallions in years past, not one has returned. Finally, once you complete all of those tasks, you must find and retrieve the greatest relic from the age of the Hero of Time. The Ocarina of Time. No one knows where it is located, except possibly Zelda. You must ask her about the location and find it. Once that is done, you must play the Aria of Sages in front of the Tower in the Sky, but I cannot tell where you will learn that melody either. I can give you only two more things, but they are both for Link. Here is the Ether Medallion, and before you ask, no, it is not one of the six you seek. This has a special power that uses some of your magic, but it freezes everything that you can currently see. Two of the Great Fairies scattered throughout Hyrule will probably have the two counterparts to this one. Also, here is the Kokiri's Emerald. The other two gems I am sure you will find on your quest. They are very important, and I know you will use both of these things I am giving you. Good luck on your quest, and may the Goddesses be with you." "Thank you for your help." said Link, "if we need any more advice we shall come to you." "'Bye." Sora said as he exited. "See ya." replied Shane in turn. The three exited the cave and climbed down the cliff. As they passed Dodongo's Cavern, two huge Dinofols and two smaller Lizalfos ran out of the cavern, grabbed Sora and Link, and dragged them into the gaping cave. As Shane watched in horror, he realized what he must do. He had to save them.

Chapter 8: First Fight

After Shane entered the cave that was the antechamber, he noticed two major changes. The first, and most obvious, was the drastic increase in temperature. The second was the deafening silence. Outside the cavern there were birds singing, the wind, and the occasional Goron rolling by. Inside it there was nearly no noise at all, except for the very rare clunk of a Dodongo hitting a wall with its tail. As Shane entered the main chamber, he saw that the giant Dodongo skull, which had been opened by the Hero of Time, was now shut once again, and he knew the only way to open it was with bombs, but he didn't have any at all, although Link did. Shane thought about the possible things he could do, and came up with the simplest solution; he had to find Link.

Suddenly he heard a strange mumbling noise, and as he looked around, he saw a tied up Link being led into a different room by two, vicious looking Lizalfos. He screamed his name, and the Lizalfos took notice of him, and they chittered to each other for a moment before one of them jumped toward Shane, while the other led Link away. As Shane watched the hideous lizard jump towards him, he drew his swords from their scabbards, brandishing them in a combat pose. The Lizalfos lunged at him with its rusty sword, and Shane blocked it, but barely, not being ready for the sudden attack. He lashed out with the sword in his strong hand, his left, still blocking with the other sword. The giant lizard leaps back in surprise, not expecting him to fight back so viciously, then slashes its sword left and right, which Shane blocks with relative ease. Shane launches several attacks, all of which are blocked, and realizes that he cannot beat the Lizalfos with swordsmanship and so jumps back, thinking to himself, I hope this works. He points at the Lizalfos with his golden swords and yells at the top of his lungs, "Odyssey!" Instantly, and out of nowhere, three swords appear and pierce the Lizalfos, killing it on contact. Shane, after seeing the Lizalfos fall over dead, staggers while trying to regain his balance. Succeeding at that, but still surprised at being that tired after Odyssey, even with his increased stamina, he hurries down the passage that Link was taken. After running for about two minutes, he finally catches up to the Lizalfos, and knowing that he would probably kill himself if he used Odyssey again, or even the less powerful Psyenergy Ragnarok, launched a surprise attack on the giant lizard. It almost instantly sees him, due to his lack of training, and turns to parry the blow, succeeding at doing so with one sword, but not seeing the other one sweeping toward it. As the second sword hits right where its sword arm met its head, there is a thump as the Lizalfos arm hits the ground. Shane then proceeds to put the sword in his left hand into its chest. After its body falls to the ground with a heavy thud, Shane turns his attention to the still bound Link, and cuts off his ropes.

Once his gag is removed, he says to Shane, "Thanks for the rescue, but we need to find Sora now. Just before you came I saw two Dinofols carrying him into the Dodongo head. We just need to get to higher ground to put my bombs into its eyes." "Don't worry about it," replied Shane, "I know this place like the back of my hand, assuming it hasn't changed since the original Link's time. First let's check a shortcut, come back with me to the main chamber." As they reenter the main chamber, Link and Shane hop onto the middle platform in front of the giant skull, and then jump onto the leftmost platform. The instant both are on there it starts to rise to the second floor, and the bridge. When they reach the top, they are greeted by a Fire Keese, to which Link introduces an arrow. That done, they run over to the skull and jump on top of it. Link says to Shane, "Back up, I don't want the explosion to hurt you." Shane does so, and Link drops a bomb in one eyehole, then the other. As the Dodongo jawbone hits the floor, Shane says ominously, "Let's go, how bad can it be?"

Chapter 9: King Dodongo

As they enter the chamber, Link hands some bombs to Shane, saying, "Here are some bombs, just in case you might need them later." "I doubt I will," replied Shane, "but thanks anyways." After looking around for a moment, they see that the door leading into the final chamber is unlocked, but they decide to look in the side chambers first, just in case Sora was taken into one of them. They start down the right-hand path, but before they get halfway, three baby Dodongos pop up out of the ground, and Shane, drawing one sword, says to Link, "I'll take care of these guys, but when I kill them stay back." He approaches them and quickly dispatches them with three quick swipes from his sword, then retreats to a safe distance at they explode. The rest of the trip around through the side chambers in completely uneventful, which surprises Shane, who expected them to be swarming with enemies. As they come into view of the giant door once again, they see that two full grown Dodongos have come to rest in that chamber. Link whispers to Shane, "You know how to take these things down?" "Yep." "Ok, I'll take the left, you take the right." They jump out of the shadows and quickly cover the distance to the Dodongos, swords drawn. As they approach they jump up, and plunge their swords into the Dodongo's tails, their only weak point. They squeal in pain, and then lay still as their life leaves them. Link and Shane approach the door they were guarding and open it. When it reaches the ceiling, they see a huge pit in front of them. Shane asks Link, "Are you ready for this?" "Always," comes the reply. They jump down the huge pit.

In reality, while Shane, already knowing what was probably down there, was completely ready, while Link could not have prepared himself for what stood before him now. It was a Dodongo, but one twenty times the size of a normal one. Link stood dumbfounded while Shane looked around the room for Sora. He finally spotted him standing gagged and bound to a pole setting on a rock, connected by a small bridge to the outer ring, in the middle of the lava that covered the entire room. He said to Link, "We're gonna have to kill the King Dodongo in order to free Sora." "Ok, I'm on it." came the reply. Link then ran around to the back of the King Dodongo and started slashing at the tail, but his sword bounced harmlessly off. Shane sighed and said, "Link, that's not how you kill this one. Just give me your bombs and let me do it. You try and free Sora." Link ran off to do just that, and as soon as he left, the King Dodongo breathed in a tremendous breath, and Shane, knowing what was coming, pulled out a bomb and lit it, then threw it into the Dodongo's mouth as soon as it was open. The Dodongo roared in pain and curled up into a ball and immediately started rolling around the room, then came to a stop halfway across the room. Shane immediately ran over there and threw a bomb into its already open mouth, and it started rolling again. It came to a stop once more, and Shane threw a third and final bomb into its mouth. The Dodongo started rolling around the room again, but very off balance. It finally rolled into the lava, which immediately hardened, imprisoning the Dodongo. Shane was about to run over to Sora and Link when he saw a white glow from where the Dodongo had been, and went over to investigate. When he reached it, he saw a large pure black stone. He went over and picked it up, thinking it might be important later, and ran over to where Sora had been tied up. When he got there, Link had already freed Sora, and they were deep in conversation going into detail about each others worlds. As Shane reached them they jumped up and yelled, "That was amazing! Neither of us could have handled it that well, you didn't even get scratched!" "Well," replied Shane, "I kinda cheated. I had a little...experience on how to defeat those before." "Even knowing that, you still did great for your first major battle." "Thanks, now let's get out of here, something worse could happen. Oh, and I found this stone in the Dodongo's stomach." "Good. It might just come in handy." They start to exit through the ladder at the center of the room when there is a rumbling, like an earthquake, in the room. They are thinking that something bigger is coming, but a portal appears near them. Shane, already knowing where it leads, enters first, followed by Link and Sora. They appear in the antechamber of the cavern, and begin to walk out when Shane, with a shocked look on his face, stops. The others go over and ask him, "What is it?" "You remember that stone I found?" came the reply. "Yes." "Well, it's moving."

Chapter 10: Crono

"It's moving!? How is that possible?" inquired Sora. "Well," answered Shane, "the only reason I can think of is that it is an egg." "You mean that instead of a King Dodongo it was a Queen Dodongo?" asked Link. "It seems like it, but we won't be able to tell until it hatches, so let's just wait till then." They sit down, but it is no longer than two or three minutes before the egg shell starts to break. What they see coming through is not a Dodongo, but something else. When the last piece of eggshell breaks, and the creature unfurls its wings, they finally realize what it is. A dragon. Shane is the first to walk over and take a closer look. It was about three feet long and about two and a half high, was pitch black in color, and, although Shane knew it would be a fearsome beast later on, it was rolled onto its back, totally helpless. Link comes over and says to Shane, "I have heard about dragons, but I didn't think that they still existed! Lore says that the first person to touch it is bound to it for life, and it takes on some of the characteristics of the one who touches it. Since you freed it, Shane, you should have the honor of touching it." Shane thanks him and goes over to the dragon, then, very hesitantly, touches it with one index finger. When he does so, he feels a sensation like being simultaneously burned and frozen, which was rather painful. As suddenly as the sensation started, however, it stopped, and Shane was left with a tingling feeling on his left palm, and as he looked at it, he saw that there was a strange symbol that seemed to be a combination of the Triforce and a Keyblade, surrounded by a circle with flames coming off it.

"This dragon is now yours," said Link, "but what will you name it?" Shane thought about this for a moment, racking his brain for possible names, and finally came up with one. "I'll name him Crono. It's fitting, since I am a Chrono Adept. That is, if the dragon likes it." _"So what do you think of the name Crono?" _he asked it. He got back no words, only an intense feeling of happiness. "I think he likes it, but there is only one was to find out. Come here Crono." As he called the dragon, it realized that it now had a name, and came over to Shane, licking his outstretched fingers. He asked Link, "So what can you tell me about dragons?"

"Well," came the reply, "dragons live long past the age of a normal human, unless they are attached to someone, in which case they die approximately when the human they are connected to does, and can grow up to the size of a large hill, though that is very rare. They come in many different colors ranging from pitch black to a brilliant white. They are influenced by whomever they are connected to, taking on characteristics from that person, whether they be prone to anger, laid back, or insane, you get the picture. In some cases they take on the magical abilities of the more powerful sorcerers and the like. The more powerful in magic the person, the greater chance they will share that power. It also increases the chance if you get it at a very early age. Those characteristics also tell when it will get the power. Since you got it when it just hatched, that probably means it will gain some sort of power over Psyenergy quite quickly. Dragons are very intelligent, even from a young age they can understand human speech, but can't talk. They can, however, project words into people's minds, but they are usually two or three months old before they can do that. After about a day, usually less though, they can speak to the person they share the mental link with. They can breathe fire at the age of one month or so, most are able to fly at around that time, and are grown enough to carry a human then too. They can carry a human before that, but to do so requires uncommon strength, and they can't do it for very long. Once in a while they are able to breathe more than fire, but to do so requires immense influence from both their environment and the one they are attached to, and even then they are three or more months old before that happens. That symbol on your hand has some sort of special meaning, and is unique to you. The symbol was a way of saying what you will do with the dragon, basically seeing your future, though they are always vague and usually hard to read. Dragons are pretty rare nowadays, but they were a lot more plentiful centuries ago. Also, it was hard even then to find a domesticated dragon. The only way to domesticate them was to care for them from a very early age, and since female dragons guarded their eggs very well, that was hard to do. That's about all I know about them." "Wow," said Shane, "you sure know a lot about dragons, but do you know about this symbol." "Yeah," agreed Sora, "how do you know so much about them?" "Well," answered Link, "things weren't so interesting for a while, so I used to spend a lot more time in the castle library, and dragons are very interesting." "If that's all you know then let's get going. What were we supposed to find first? Some kind of lens?" said Sora. "Actually," replied Shane, "it's called the Lens of Truth, and it allows you to see hidden things. It's quite useful, especially in the Shadow Temple." "Ok, then lets go."

Chapter 11: The Bottom of the Well

As the trio of heroes and their newly acquired dragon entered Kakariko, and received many odd stares at Crono, but since Link was very well known in Hyrule, no one questioned him. They approached the well of Kakariko, which was very famous since the Hero of Time had retrieved the Lens of Truth from it, and noticed at once that it was completely filled with water. Sora said to the others, "This could be a problem." To this, Link replied, "Don't worry, and let me take care of it." He pulls out a brown ocarina, and plays the Song of Storms. As soon as the enchanting melody is finished, it begins to storm, with great booms of thunder and huge flashes of lightning. The windmill above them starts to spin faster and faster, and soon enough the well is drained enough for them to enter. They begin to climb down the ladder, and no sooner than they reach the bottom does it become almost pitch black.

As they enter the first chamber of the bottom of the well, they notice an odd green light coming toward them, steadily growing brighter. "What the heck is that?" asked Shane. His question was quickly answered as the light comes directly in front of them, and reveals itself to be, not a simple light, but a giant skull engulfed in a white hot flame. They are clearly out of its path, but, in order to insure it won't hinder them later on, Link pulls out his bow and shoots the skull with an arrow. When the arrow reaches the skull, a hole opens up, and all that is visible in it is blackness. The arrow enters the hole, and all of them expect it to come out the other side, but the arrow has simply disappeared. "OK then," says Link, "this might be a little harder than I thought." The foursome approached the door directly in front of them, only to receive a surprise as they all fell through an illusion that disguised a hole as floor. Once they hit the ground, after dusting themselves off, they heard a moaning sound, and looked around to see about ten ReDeads surrounding them. Link, Sora, and Shane are instantly grabbed, so Shane yells to Crono via his mental link, "_Kill these things!"_ To his surprise, he receives a message in return, "_You got it, dude._"

Crono unsheathes his claws, and he quickly dispatches the ReDead holding Shane, then they each dispatch one of the ReDeads holding Link and Sora. Once all four are free, they easily eliminate all remaining ReDeads, and hear a chime, which Link and Shane take to mean that the door has opened. Sora and Link find that they are injured, so Link takes a Red Potion, and Sora gives himself an Elixir. They then hear a loud thud from the direction of the door, so they head that way to investigate. They reach the end of the passage and find a chest containing a key, which they use to open the locked door leading to the main chamber.

As they enter the room, Shane says to Link, "You know, Crono talked to me just now, when we were attacked by the ReDeads." "Very nice," came the reply, "it seems that Crono is smarter than average dragons. Whether he has any more talents, we shall see." "Well," cut in Sora, "do you think we should split up? We could cover more ground that way, but if one group got into trouble, we couldn't really call for help." "Unless," said Shane, "I go with one group, and Crono goes with another. That way, with our mental link, if one group got in trouble they could alert the others. But, that might not work too well." In the end, after much long, repetitive discussion, common sense prevailed and the group stayed together. As they wandered around, occasionally crossing paths with the flaming skull, Sora asked, "So where exactly is the Lens of Truth?" To this, Shane replied, "Well, my guess is that it is in the innermost chamber, where the Dead Hand is supposed to lurk." This time it was Link's turn to ask the question. "But what's a Dead Hand?" "Its some kind of monster that lurks underground, and only comes out when it feels that it has grabbed something in one of its hands." came the answer. As they are about to turn a corner into another of the many passageways, the flaming skull rounds the corner first, sees them, and begins charging at them. Shane, without even realizing what he is doing, grabs Link and Sora in order to brace himself and screams, "Stop!" The effect of the Psyenergy is instantaneous, as the skull freezes, and Shane sags to the floor, having almost no energy left. Link and Sora's concern for Shane overrides their shock, and they kneel with him. Shane whispers frantically to them, "Get out of the way. Can't hold spell." They realize what he means, and drag him into a side door, with Crono following closely behind. No sooner than the dragon enters the door do they see the skull start to move again, oblivious to what just happened. Shane collapses on the floor as the door closes, and grates come over it, barring them from leaving. At the sound of the metal bars hitting the floor, Link and Sora look up, and upon seeing what was in the room, they realize where they are. They had somehow stumbled into the room of the Dead Hand.

Chapter 12: The Dead Hand

The Dead Hand was a very weird looking creature; that much they could gather even from the small glimpse they had before they moved underground. It was a strange milky white with grey and black blotches all over it, and had an oddly shaped head, which it held up very high on a long neck. The only other thing that they noticed was that it would be very difficult to hit the head, since it was many feet above both of their reaches. Seeing that, they frantically tried to think of a way to wake Shane up, as he could help them a lot. "Link, don't you have some kind of potion that can heal people from near death?" "No, I don't anymore; I used my last one after the ReDeads!" "Then what should we do?" "We'll have to take on the Dead Hand without him. Crono should be able to protect him, as long as he doesn't get caught by one of the hands." All this time, Crono was staring intently at them as if to say, _You idiots, I know a way to heal Shane._ Sure enough, seconds later, just after Link and Sora leave, rings of light form around Crono, though only Shane can see them. As soon as those rings dissipate, Shane feels much better, and jumps to his feet, ready to fight. He first asks Crono, _"What did you do to me?" "Duh,"_ came the answer, _"I used Cure on you. You are a very powerful Adept, so your influence on me was tremendous. Man, I thought you were the smart one in the group." "I'll thank you later, lets get going." _Seeing Shane and Crono running to enter the battle, Link and Sora go over to ask what happened, but Shane quickly tells them, "Not now! Focus on the battle, and I'll tell you what happened later!"

All four of them turn their attention to the battle, but there is no battle. The Dead Hand was nowhere to be seen, and all that was aboveground were the many hands. Sora, sensing no immediate danger, wandered over to where they last saw the Dead Hand. The second he got there, a hand reached far beyond what they thought was possible and grabbed him. As soon as that was done, the Dead Hand rose from the ground and approached Sora, lowering its head to take a bite out of him. Shane rushed over, swords at the ready, and cut off the hand holding him, then delivered a swift, but barely damaging blow to the now lowered head of the Dead Hand. Milliseconds after the blow landed, however, the Dead Hand retreated to the safety of the ground. "That's how you beat it!" exclaimed Sora, "Get caught by its hand, and it comes out of the ground!" "Yes, and if you hadn't have gotten caught, I could have told you that sooner." replied Shane. "OK," said Link, "here is what we do. Sora, you are faster than anyone else, so you get caught by its hands. Shane and I will attack it when it comes out of the ground, and Crono can cut off the hand holding you, Sora, if the Dead Hand gets too close for comfort. Shane, ask him if he can." Shane is about to ask him that question, when Crono responds, _"Yes, I can do it. Don't look so surprised, remember, I can understand human speech." _"Yes, he can do that." answered Shane. "OK, then lets beat this thing." ordered Link. Sora immediately rushed over to one of the hands, and is promptly caught. Sensing that it had something in its trap, the Dead Hand surfaces, slowly creeps toward Sora, lowering its head to take a bite out of him, and almost reaches him when it makes the mistake of putting its head too far down. Shane and Link swiftly spring into action, hacking at its head. The Dead Hand swiftly retreats to the safety of underground, though slower than it had before. "Once more, then it'll be down!" cried Shane. Sora once again goes near a hand and gets caught, but suddenly three more hands sprout out of the ground near Link, Shane, and Crono, and grab them. The Dead Hand appears from the ground in a shower of dirt and rocks, almost directly in front of Shane. It inches closer, lowering its head. All the while Shane is frantically trying to say something, to get some sort of Psyenergy out, but there is a hand covering his mouth, preventing him from speaking. The Dead Hand is almost upon him when Link remembers something. He acts almost without thinking, shouting, "Ether!"

A cold wind sweeps across them, and very quickly the hands stiffen. All four break out of their grasp, and huddle together, while the Dead Hand lets out an ear splitting wail. "I d-didn't think it w-would b-be this c-cold." said Link. "D-don't w-worry," said Shane, "I g-got just the t-thing." He holds out his hand in the middle of them. "F-flare." A small flame appears on his palm, but is quickly snuffed out. He uses Flare again, and this time the flame doesn't go out, and steadily grows stronger. The chilled group huddles around the growing flame, and before long, Ether simply stops. They look around, and see hands sticking out of the ground, completely frozen. They also see the Dead Hand, immobile, frozen, and, as it occurred to Shane, very brittle. Shane goes over to the Dead Hand and strikes it with the hilt of his sword, and it shatters into thousands of pieces. As soon as the last piece hits the ground, there is a flash, and a huge treasure chest appears. Link goes over to it and takes out, what else, the Lens of Truth. He says to the others, "Mission accomplished. Let's get out of this place.

Chapter 13: Oblivion

As they leave the chamber that contained the Dead Hand, Sora asks Link, "So what do we do now?" Link answers, "Well, we need to get all the medallions next. The first, and easiest, one to get should be the Forest Medallion, so we need to go to Kokiri Forest." Distracted, and watching the group, Crono never saw the skull bearing down on him until it was too late. The others saw it just in time, and jumped back, watching in horror as Crono was engulfed by the flaming skull. Shane cries out in horror and rushes after the skull, while the others hold him back. "No! No! Let me go after him!" screams Shane. "Shane, it's too late. Crono is gone." Just that second, Shane gets a message. _"Shane, I'm fine, for the moment at least. There is nothing but blackness around, come get me!" _Shane yells at the others, "He just talked to me! We have to go save him!" "Sure, sure," says Link, "we'll go after him. Let's go this way." He starts to lead Shane in the opposite direction that the skull is going. "Why are we going this way? The skull went the other way." "Yeah," says Sora, picking up on what Link was doing, "we're just gonna ummm… cut him off by going this way." "Hey," replied Shane, "this is the way to leave; we aren't going after Crono at all!" He starts struggling, trying to rip his way out of their grasp. "Shane! Stop it! This is for your own good!" cries Link. "No! Crono is still in there! I'm sorry I have to do this to you, but it's the only way, and it's the perfect time to test it. Electrify!" As soon as he says that word, his body begins to course with crackling electricity. Link and Sora are thrown back against the walls, barely conscious. "Guys, I'm sorry I had to do that, but it's the only way I can save Crono." He rushes off in search of the flaming skull. After a few minutes of searching, he finds it, then, after thinking about what he was doing for a moment, dives headfirst into it. A black hole opens up and absorbs him, leaving no trace behind. Soon, Link and Sora come to, both wondering what happened. They both make the connection very quickly and shout, "Shane!" They rush after the skull, finding it very quickly, as it is now close to them. They get directly in its path, look at each other for a moment, and then dive straight into the skull, which has now claimed four victims.

When their eyes fully adjust to having almost no light whatsoever, they look around to take in their surroundings, then, after looking for a while, realize there are no surroundings. All they can see is a slight haze in front of them, but they dismiss it as a trick their minds are playing on them. They hear a voice whisper, "Flare." and are about to panic, when they see Shane and Crono appear directly in front of them, Shane cradling a flame on his palm. Sora says to him, "Man, you scared me! How did you do that?" "Its simple," replied Shane, "I just used my Cloak Psyenergy. If you remain in shadow, you cannot be seen, but if you return to the light, you can. I bet that it'll come in handy during the Shadow Temple." "Yeah," replied Link, "but it'll be almost useless during the Light Temple." "Well," said Sora, "that's good and all, but right now we need to find a way out of here." "OK," answered Link, "let's get looking for some kind of exit." "I have an idea, whenever I played Ocar- I mean, whenever I heard about the Hero of Time having to escape from somewhere, he either had to pull a switch or kill all the enemies in that room. Let's look around for either one of those." They begin to search the nearly pitch black chamber where they are, but neither Link nor Sora can find anything, mainly because the greatest concentration of light is over where Shane is. Shane, on the other hand, has had much better luck. What he found includes two rusty swords, which appear to have a chunk bitten out of them, a partially rotted bow, five or six arrowheads, an arrow embedded in the wall, an arm, rib, and leg bone of a long dead human, and the nearly complete skeleton of something that had six legs, three arms, and apparently no head. Unfortunately, however, he finds nothing relevant to their escape attempt. They all converge on the central spot where Crono remains as a marker to signify where they all should meet. "Well," says Sora, "I got nothing." "Same here." replies Shane. "I didn't find anything either." answers Link. "Well there has to be some way out!" exclaims Shane to the others. As he says this, there is a rumbling, like that of an earthquake. It is low, menacing, but lasts for only a few seconds. "What was that?" asks Sora. "I don't know," says Shane in return, "but it just may be our ticket out of here. Everyone make as much noise as you can. It seems to be triggered by it." This command is followed by a loud racket, each person screaming at the top of their lungs. This noise is followed by an almost inaudible hissing, and the sudden appearance of two yellow eyes. The eyes advance, and when they are no more than ten feet from the group of four, the room they are in is suddenly filled with a blinding light. They try to see where they are, but their eyes are drawn to what made the roar. A huge, swamp green snake coming towards them.

Chapter 14: The Serpent

They stood staring at it for a minute or two as it moved closer, but when it was no more than three or four feet away, it reared up and flared out a hood, snapping them out of their lethargic state. They dodge milliseconds before it strikes with a force that would have easily killed them, even without the venom. Link, having the fastest reflexes of them all, leaps forward to strike it, but it whips its tail around, giving a direct hit to his jaw, slamming him to the ground. "Man, that thing's fast!" yelled Sora, "How are we supposed to even hit it?" "We gotta be faster than it!" screamed Shane in return. Those two then run over to Link to see if he's alright, but when they get over there, they find that he is unconscious. Shane says to Sora, "That's fine. We can still take this oversized snake." "OK," answered Sora, "here's the plan. I'll come in from the right, you come from the left, and Crono will come from the center." "Got it." says Shane, and Crono nods his head to signify that he understands. They execute this plan, almost to perfection. The serpent cannot decide which one to attack, but it finally makes its move. It slams its head against Sora, trying to bite him, but not quite succeeding. Simultaneously, it whips its tail around and nails Crono with the tip of it, knocking him down, mostly injured but knocked out, and unable to fight. Shane, seeing that Crono is definitely incapacitated, quickly runs over to Sora, yelling at him to wake up, but to no avail. Sora is unconscious as well, leaving Shane to fight the serpent alone. He then enters a vicious rage, completely focused on the serpent, and doesn't see Link start to get up, just in time to see his normally blue eyes take on a red color. The serpent lunged forward at Shane with lightning fast reflexes, but Shane easily leaps to the side, dodging him like it was nothing. He then whips out his swords, and holding them together, says softly, "Fuse." The swords merge into a silver, emerald encrusted, two-handed broadsword, which Shane holds effortlessly in his left hand, though a normal man would struggle with two hands. The snake, by then, has turned around and is preparing for another strike, and suddenly lunges forward.

Shane calmly raises his free hand and says in a normal voice, "Stop." The serpent freezes in midair instantly. Link expects Shane to fall to the ground in agony, but he stands there, as calm as ever. Shane walks around to the side of the serpent and says, "Play." It continues its lunge, but only bites air. It swiftly turns around and lunges again, but Shane once again sidesteps it. _He's playing with it! _realized Link, _I never knew he was capable of winning so easily! _The snake coils up to strike once again, but never gets the chance. Shane yells out, "Obliviate!" A black hole in space opens up next to the serpent, and it is sucked in mercilessly. Shane says to his sword, "Revert." It changes back to the two golden blades. He then says to himself in a deep voice, "Hmm, I was expecting a challenge, but I did need the practice. I suppose I had better return control." The crimson color in Shane's eyes slowly fades, and finally they return to their natural blue shade.

"Whoa," says Shane to himself, "that was weird." Link comes running up to him yelling, "What the heck was that?" "What was what?" "That thing you just did, with the easy Chrono Psyenergy and the beating the snake." Shane looks around the room. "Well where did it go?" "You mean you really don't remember any of that?" "No, I remember everyone but me getting KO'ed, but then everything went black. I can't remember anything from then until now." "Well, whatever it is, it's pretty dangerous. You can tell when that happens to you pretty easily though. Your eyes turn from blue to gold. Anyways, we're kind of short on time, so I'm gonna have to trust you on this one. Let's go wake up Sora and Crono and get out of here."

Chapter 15: The Sages

"So you don't know where we can find the Hookshot either?" Link asked another bystander, "No one seems to know!" "Sorry," replied the man, "knowledge of that has been lost for centuries. The only people who would know now would be the original Sages. Of course, there is the chance either Darunia or Nabooru passed down the knowledge to the current Sages." "Well, where could we find them?" asked Link. "If the Fire Sage wasn't on Death Mountain, then he would be in the Chamber of Time, where the Master Sword is kept. Nabooru will be there too, but if she isn't, she will be at the Gerudo Fortress. If all that fails, come find me, and I'll tell you the locations of the other Sages. They might know." "OK, but what's your name?" "My name's Hermes and I work in the mayor's office up on that hill. If I'm not there, just ask someone where I live." "Thanks Hermes!" yelled Link as they left. "They have a democracy in Hyrule?" asked Shane. "Yeah, is that a surprise?" answered Link. "Well, yeah, kinda. I always expected Hyrule to have a king." Shane retorted. "They did away with the monarchy about two centuries ago. We still have a king, but he is not the sole law. He is still makes all the laws, but they have to be approved by our Senate before they are law throughout the land." "Oh," cut in Sora, "you mean you aren't king? From the respect you command and the way you can just go in and out of the royal palace, I assumed you were the king." "No," replied Link, "I'm not. I am just a Knight of Hyrule, and actually, I am second in command of the knights. Our leader is the honorable and noble Nathanial, and although some say that I am a better leader than him, I do not believe them. He got to where he is for a reason, and he has my undying loyalty. I would gladly follow him to the death. By the way, do you have any other idea where the Hookshot would be?" "Wow," says Shane, "this sounds like the kind of guy I would like to meet. Can we? And no, Dampe's tomb was the only place I could think of." "Sure," answers Link, "I don't see why not. The guardhouse is very near the Temple of Time. Oh, look. Here's Hyrule Town no-" The reason he went speechless was because of what he had just seen. The town was on fire, and people were running away screaming from Lizalfos, Dinofols, and, much to our heroes' dismay, many Iron Knuckles.

They quickly rush into the fray, trying to save as many lives as possible, but are quickly surrounded. Each hero unsheathes his sword, and Crono does the same with his claws, and they launch themselves at the enemy. Link yells to the others, "Take out the Iron Knuckles first! They're the biggest threat!" Shane and Sora having heard this, quickly finish off the lizards they are currently engaged with and find the nearest Iron Knuckle to attack. Shane, knowing what to do against them, actually does quite well in fighting him. Sora, on the other hand, having no experience fighting Iron Knuckles, is quickly brought to his knees and knocked unconscious by its powerful, swift blows. Shane, seeing Sora in danger, quickly shouts, almost as a reflex, "Switch!" He immediately switches places with Sora, much to his surprise, and jumps up to block a massive blow from the Iron Knuckle. He swiftly reaches around its guard to deliver a blow to its torso, but is blocked by another axe. He looks around for the other Iron Knuckle, but sees none. He then notices that, instead of carrying one huge axe, this Knuckle is carrying two, slightly smaller axes, and instead of the characteristic bronze, is a silver color. The Knuckle launches a swift attack at Shane, and he has to use all his skill just to block the blows. Link finishes off his lesser Iron Knuckle and rushes to help Shane, but his path is blocked by three lesser Knuckles. They attack him simultaneously, catching him off guard. Sora finally wakes up, just in time to block a two-handed attack from a bigger than average Knuckle, and, seeing Link and Shane about to fall, decides its time. "Valor!" His clothes immediately turn red, and two different Keyblades appear in his hands. Ultima Weapon and Fenrir. He swiftly darts around the guard of his Iron Knuckle with Fenrir, cutting off its armor, and delivering a killing blow with the Ultima Weapon. He then proceeds to easily eliminate all the remaining Dinofols in the town, since Crono already defeated most of the relatively weak Lizalfos, as he determined from the spot of pitch black he saw among their bodies, and returns his attention to the Iron Knuckles. He rushes to every one, darting around their guard, delivering several swift hits to each, then moving on to the next, and soon there are only four remaining. Sora helps Link defeat the three that he is up against, and all three turn their attention onto the silver Knuckle. Realizing the odds are against it, it mutters a short phrase, then disappears in a flash of light. "I didn't know they could use magic…" mumbled Link. All three of them regroup, but Crono is nowhere to be found, so Shane decides to look for him. Sora finally returns to his normal form, and then promptly falls over from exhaustion. "That takes a lot out of me, especially without the Drive Orbs to help." he whispers to no one in particular.

"That was a great show!" says a man dressed in black armor approaching them, "I've never seen anything like that, and I've sparred with nearly everyone in Hyrule! Link, you must introduce me." He takes off his helm to reveal a stony looking face, with clean cut, black hair, a full beard, and strange black eyes. He has a regal air about him, so Sora gets up and faces him. "Well guys, this is Nathanial, the one I was telling you about. He is the leader of the Knights of Hyrule. Nathanial, the one next to me is Sora, and the other, Shane, went to look for his dragon. They are both from different worlds than Hyrule." "Very good to meet you Sora! Oh, and call me Nathan, Nathanial is so formal, and Link is the only one that actually calls me that outside of formal occasions such as banquets and what not." He gave Link a look that seemed to tell him that he really should stop it. "So, were you surprised when you entered Hyrule?" asked Nathan. "Not really," answered Sora, "I have been to many worlds, so it's not all that surprising." "So what brought you to Hyrule?" asked Nathanial. Now it was Link's turn to answer for them. "Well, they were brought here to help save our worlds, and all other worlds that may be out there, from something or someone who wants to rule them all." "So," said Nathan, "what do you need to do now? I shall help in any way possible, no matter how small." "Well," said Link in return, "the first thing we need to do is to find one of the original Sages, either Darunia or Nabooru." "The best places to look would be Death Mountain for Darunia, or the Gerudo Fortress for Nabooru. If they aren't there, they would be in the Chamber of Sages, which is impossible to reach without the Master Sword, which is locked in the Chamber of Time." "Wait," cut in Link, "the Chamber of Time is locked? When did that happen?" "Soon after the Tower in the Sky appeared," answered Nathan, "the six Sages locked the Chamber to prevent anyone with evil intentions from nearing and possibly tainting the Master Sword's power." "OK," replies Link, "since Darunia wasn't on Death Mountain, and the Chamber is sealed, we'll go to the Gerudo Fortress to look for Nabooru. Just wondering, do you have any idea how to get into the Forest Temple?" "Well, I know you will need the Hookshot, but I'm not sure how to get it. I'll be here if you need any help." says Nathan in return. "Well, I suppose we must leave now." says Link, "It is a pity that you couldn't meet Shane tho- Oh, here he comes!" Shane comes up, his eyes downcast and swollen, like he had been crying. "What happened?" asks Sora after running over to Shane. "Cr- Crono. He was killed-overwhelmed by Lizafols. Its all my fault, if I hadn't let him run off by himself, he would still be here," he says between sobs, "all my fault, all my fault, all my fau-" "Now listen here Shane," cuts in Link, "None of it was your fault. You couldn't have known that they could have overwhelmed him, and even if you did, it was practically impossible to stay together. All of us warriors could barely accomplish it. It is in no way your fault." "You- you're right," says Shane with growing strength in his voice, "even if I wasn't separated, I probably couldn't help him. That was probably how he wanted to go. Fighting for the future of Hyrule." "See?" says Link, "It's going to be fine. Oh, and, by the way, this is Nathanial." "Please," adds Nathan, "call me Nathan." "Good-good to meet you Nathan." says Shane while drying his eyes. They all say their farewells and wave goodbye to Nathan as they leave Hyrule Town. They all hear him saying good luck, but none of them hear him mumble to himself, "Hmm, so they are searching for the Sages. He will love to hear about this…"

Chapter 16: The Gerudo Fortress

Shane, Link, and Sora finally make it to the Gerudo Fortress after about an hour of walking, and are met with a less than welcoming welcome. As soon as they reach the top of the stairs, they are surrounded by six spear wielding Gerudo. "Who are you, and what is your business here?" asks the leader of the guards. "I am Link," answers, who else, Link, "and these are my fellow travelers, the one in black is Sora, the one in green is Shane, and the dragon is Crono, one of the last. We are here to pass through Desert Colossus and to meet with the Sage of Spirit." "Prove it." replies the Gerudo leader, "I know Shane is legitimate, because his clothes are like no other in this land, but how do I know that you two are who you say you are?" Sora, in response to the question, whips out his Fenrir Keyblade, then changes it to Kingdom Key, Ultima Weapon, and back to Fenrir. "Is that proof enough for you?" "Yes, but what about the third. I see nothing about him that proves his honesty." "Well." says Link, "I have no distinguishing characteristics, so I can't prove it. You will just have to take the word of my friends." "Let me confer, and if we agree, you may pass." The Gerudos gather around in a huddle, with the leader in the middle, and talk for a moment. There is a soft glow from the middle of the circle, then the huddle breaks. _Was that Psyenergy?_ thinks Shane, _No, it can't be, we aren't in Weyard. Although, I wasn't on Weyard originally either._ "We have talked about it, and we agree, you are free to go." "Thanks," says Shane, "but I need to talk to you for a moment. In private." "Whatever you need to say to me you can say in front of my comrades." came the reply. "Very well then. Did you just read Link's mind?" "What?!" she answered, "That would be magic, an art condemned by my people! Never would I do such a thing! Meet me in my quarters in half an hour, and we shall discuss why you thought I did this." The half hour passes by quickly, and a Gerudo guard comes and takes Shane to the leader's room. Shane waits for her to speak, and she does so.

"Before we start, we haven't been properly introduced. My name is Tori." "My name is Shane. Nice to meet you." "I'm not sure if I can say the same for you yet." Shane finally takes a good look at Tori, and sees that she has the bronze skin and flaming red hair characteristic of all Gerudos, but instead of the normal brown eyes, hers are a piercing opaline green. Her features are also more like that of a Hylian than a Gerudo, except for the ears, which aren't pointed like Link's. He also notices that she is quite attractive. "First off, why did you think I read Link's mind?" "Well," he replied, "I saw a glow in the middle of the circle, and that's the only reason I could come up with to explain it." "You could see tha- I mean, I didn't see it, so you must have been hallucin- oh, just forget it. Yes, I can use a form of magic, but don't tell anyone else." "Let me guess, you can manipulate the wind." "Yes, but how did you know that?" "Because I have many of the same powers as you, and, if you want, I can help you unlock your full potential as an Adept." "But what's an Adept?" "It's what you and I are. An Adept is anyone who can use a power called Psyenergy, which in Hyrule, we are the only two, at least to my knowledge, but in another world, Adepts are plentiful. Anyways, back on topic. If you want me to teach you to use and control your powers better, you need to come with us to the Spirit Temple, and maybe even further than that." "I don't know; I need more time to think about it." "Well, we leave to cross the desert tomorrow. You have until dusk to think about it, then we leave, whether you choose to come or not." "Yes, of course!" "What?" "Yes, I want to come with you. If you really can teach me more about my powers, maybe then I can show the Gerudos that magic isn't all bad. Even though Corvus uses magic, I might, as their leader, get them to trust it once again."

They begin to walk out, but Shane stops. "Tori, one more thing, who is Corvus?" "Corvus is the only male born to the Gerudos in 100 years, and, unfortunately, he has turned out much like the Ganondorf of the past." "OK, that's all I needed to know." They turn and walk out the door, and are walking down one of the twisting hallways leading back to the room where Link and Sora are, when Tori asks Shane, "So why are you going to the Spirit Temple in the first place?" "We need to ask Nabooru where to find the Hookshot." "Is that all? Any Gerudo could have told you that!" "Really? I was under the impression that it wasn't common knowledge. Well, then it looks like you aren't going to come with us." "Now who ever said that I wasn't coming just for a thing like that?" "What? Oh, well, I thought that you were only coming because you kinda want to supervise us, you know, make sure we don't mess up and break some artifact in the Spirit Temple or something." "Of course I'm coming, I need you to teach me how to better control my powers. Also, you are the saviors of the world. I think I can trust you with a few slightly valuable artifacts." "Oh, I might have guessed. So where exactly is the Hookshot?" "Well, technically, no one currently knows where the Hookshot is, but we have the Longshot preserved as a treasure of the Gerudo. We had copies of it made so we could learn how to be as agile as the Hero of Time. He is the only one who has ever escaped from one of our cells, and he only accomplished that because of the Longshot, therefore, we made many replicas of it and learned how to use it very well." "Alright, is it OK if I ask you one more thing before we leave?" "Well, you do ask an awful lot of questions, but I suppose you can." "Well then, why you the leader of the Gerudos? You say that you are, but you don't look more than seventeen or so." "Actually, I'm seventeen, and I possess an unnatural skill level for my age. Because of that, I was put in charge of maintaining the guards that protect the city. The actual leader of the Gerudos is Libra, and chances are she will remain leader for a long time to come, since she is very popular with my people." "Well, that's all I needed to know. Shall we meet up with the rest of the group?" "Sounds good to me, I'll lead, since our fortress is very complicated, someone who has not studied the routes might get lost." They leave the room at long last, Tori leading the way. After a few minutes of wandering through the maze of the Gerudo Fortress, they reach the room where Link and Sora are. Shane says to them, "OK guys, lets go." "Wait a minute," interrupts Tori, "before we leave, and I give you your Longshots, I want to see how proficient each of you are with your swordsmanship. Let's go out in front of the fortress to have a little test. You will each be facing me. Don't worry about hurting me, and don't hold back. I have trained every day since I was six years old, and the only Gerudo ever to best me was our leader, Libra." A grin comes onto Link's face. "You think you can beat me?" he asks, "You actually think you can defeat a Knight of Hyrule in a swordfight? I'll have you know that I have only ever lost to my direct superior, the leader of the Knights." "Well then this should be interesting."

Chapter 17: The Test

"Since neither of us want to kill the other, we will be fighting with dulled blades. You with an almost exact copy of your sword, and I will fight with my training scimitar. You can get used to the feel of your sword, and then the test will commence." says Tori to Link. Link swings his sword a few times, then says to Tori with a self-confident smirk, "I'm ready. Let's go. Oh, and if at any time you feel the battle is getting to stressful for you, feel free to surrender." "Shut up and fight." comes the reply. They run towards each other, swords held at the ready, and when the right moment comes, they strike at each other. Link swiftly takes the offensive, striking at Tori several times. She gracefully blocks each blow, then launches an offensive of her own. She swings at Link from the side, reaches down acting like she is going to knock his legs out from under him, then quickly swings her scimitar upward trying to hit his torso, a blow which Link barely blocks. She then Link once again takes the offensive, swinging his sword in a complicated pattern as if it was no more than an extension of his arm. Tori successfully blocks every blow but one, but it no more than scrapes against her arm. Link, seeing an opening, quickly steps behind her and grabs her right arm, pinning the scimitar down. "I win." he whispers to her. "That's what you think." she says in return. She swiftly switches her weapon to her left hand and pushes Link away with her right, then starts series of attacks much more complicated than Link's. She attacks from the left and right, seemingly at the same time, and her scimitar is nothing more than a silver blur. Suddenly, and without warning, she hits Link's sword hand, knocking the sword loose, then flicking the tip of her blade up to his neck. "You are dead." she says to him in a mocking voice.

"Man," says Shane, running up to Tori and Link, "that was amazing!" "Yes," says Link with a sigh, "but I lost. Tori, you are truly better than me. I shouldn't have acted that way before. I simply underestimated your skill." Laughing, Tori replies, "Link, you act like it was something horrible! You almost had me there. If I hadn't trained to use both hands, you probably would have won! Anyways, who's up next?" "Not me," says Sora, "I'm kinda out of practice, and if you beat Link, you would win against me with no contest." "No, Sora, you have to fight." "OK, I guess I will then, if I have to." says Sora dejectedly. "Don't you need to get a dull blade?" asks Tori. "No, I can make my Keyblade as dull or sharp as I want." He walks out onto the battle arena, and lines up across from Tori in his battle stance. Tori charges him, attacks him once on her way past, and ends up behind him. Sora, with a look of bewilderment, barely blocks the attack, and then turns to see Tori running at him once more. He once again barely blocks the blow, and turns to attack Tori, but sees her blade flying at him. He whips up his Keyblade just in time to block the attack, then attempts to go on the offensive, but to no avail. Tori is just too fast for him. He drops his Keyblade acknowledging his defeat. "You win. Yes, I know I'm not that great. Not practicing for a month will do that to you, and I've only needed to fight a few times since I got here." "Well then," replies Shane hesitantly, as if dreading this moment, "I guess I'm the only one left, though this match shouldn't last long." "Come on Shane," says Link, "give yourself some credit, you are a good swordsman, especially for having very little formal training whatsoever." "If you say so." replies Shane with a heavy sigh. "Step up, and we will replace those swords of yours with some dull ones." says Tori. "Don't worry about it, I can take care of that." replies Shane. He says, "Barrier." as he runs his hand up and down one sword, then does the same to the second one. He then proceeds to run the edge of the sword across his hand, and Tori almost cries out, but then sees no blood on his palm. "Interesting, that could come in handy sometime. You will have to teach me. Anyways, back to the matter at hand. Square up, and lets go."

Shane and Tori face each other, then raise their swords in a battle ready position. Tori rushes at Shane, who settles into a defensive position to deflect her attacks, which he does successfully. She then launches another complicated series of strikes different from the one she used earlier. Several of the blows hit Shane, but they are only glancing blows. No one watching notices this, but Shane's eyes momentarily change to a dull red color, but Shane shakes his head and says to himself, "Gotta fight it." He turns to the offensive, trying to get around her guard, hitting with both swords at once, or striking with both swords on opposite sides whenever possible, but Tori simply blocks one and ducks or dodges the other. He then changes his strategy to try and knock her legs out from under her, and he fakes going for her head, then swiftly stops his hand and tries to kick her legs out from under her, but Tori easily jumps over the blow. Shane once again has to go on the defensive, struggling to block some of the weaker and slower blows now. About half of the attacks hit him, mainly on the torso, but two or three blows to his right hand make him drop his sword. His eyes flicker red for a moment, then blaze to deep crimson. He glances at his sword lying on the ground, not noticing the strange look Tori is giving him, but then shakes his head as if telling himself not to pick up the sword. He then turns his full attention to Tori, who had backed up in surprise, but is now rushing head on towards him. He smirks to himself, then rushes forward to meet her. Their swords collide with a deafening clang, this time with Tori at the worse end of the strike. Shane then mercilessly attacks, thrusting, slicing, and parrying every blow Tori happens to get in. He then jumps completely over Tori, twisting around in midair. When he lands, he puts his sword around her neck, saying to himself, "Another victory for Felix." His eyes slowly regain their blueness, and his tensed muscles relax.

He lets Tori go with a dazed look in his eyes. "Where did that come from?!" Tori asked. "I-I don't know." answers Shane. "That's only happened to me once before, only this time I could see it happening, although it was like I was in a dream… I didn't hurt you, did I?" "No," replies Tori, "I'm fine, though that was possibly the best display of swordsmanship I have seen. If I was any worse of a fighter, or not used to that kind of thing though, it could have turned out much worse. He said his name was Felix. Where did that come from?" "I don't know," says Shane, "but it very well could be from playing too much Golden Sun." "Golden what?" cuts in Link. "Oh, nothing," answers Shane, "just a game I used to play back in my world." "Well, since you are done reminiscing," says Tori, "here are your Longshots. Let's get to the Forest Temple before anything worse happens."

Chapter 18: The Forest Temple

"No," says Tori with a sigh, "how many times do I have to tell you Sora, that's not how you hold your Longshot." "Then just tell me one more time, how do you hold it?" replies Sora, obviously confused. "Come on man, its easy!" yells Shane from high on the ledge leading into the Forest Temple. "Yeah Sora! You're the only one who doesn't get it!" adds Link. "Well Shane has seen how it works, you have used one, and Tori is a master!" retorts Sora, "I'm the only one who has never seen one of these before in his life!" "Well excuse me, Sora!" answers Shane, "We were just having a little fun!" "Just ignore them, and listen to me. Hold the handle of the Longshot in your right hand." says Tori. "OK. I got that part down." answers Sora. "Then aim at the tree branch, squeeze the trigger, and hold on tight." Sora does that, and finally, the point shoots out and embeds itself in the limb high above, dragging Sora up. Tori quickly joins the others on the ledge, saying, "What are you waiting for? We don't got a lot of time to waste!" They enter the temple, with Shane marveling on how new it looks. Nothing seems different, but everything looks much newer than the last time he saw it. He mentions this to Link, who responds, "Well of course it's new, you don't expect it to survive for centuries underwater, do you?" "Of course," Shane replies, "the flooding of Hyrule during the era of the Hero of Wind, how could I forget? But I thought that the entire land of Hyrule was spared." "Well," answers Link, "according to legend, only Hyrule Castle wasn't flooded. Some sort of magic protected it. That's how we got the original blueprints to the temples, although they were damaged by the ages. That's why the layout is different." "Come on guys," interrupts Tori, "you can reminisce once we have the medallion." They all stop talking and leave the antechamber to enter the temple, Shane muttering something under his breath.

Once they are fully inside, they see that there are two separate ways to go, so Link asks the others, "So, what now?" "I think we should split up." says Shane. "Sounds good," replies Sora, "but how should we do that?" "Well," answers Link, "you should probably go with Tori, just in case there is anywhere you need to use your Longshot." "No," interrupts Tori, "I think Sora can use his Longshot pretty well. I want to go with Shane." "Why?" asks Shane, obviously confused. "The main reason is that you can show me a little Psyenergy, and maybe explain how it works. Besides, I really don't trust you with Link. We can't afford to lose our only Chrono Adept." "Well," replies Shane, "I'm not sure exactly how much help I can be. I've never taught anyone anything before, and I really don't even have full control over my Psyenergy, but I'll do the best I can." "Oh, thank you!" exclaims Tori in an uncharacteristic manner as she runs over and hugs Shane. "OK then," says Sora, obviously a little uneasy, "we'll just go this way then…" As they begin to go their separate ways, the room suddenly gets dark. They hear a horrid cackling laugh that echoes around the room, and look to see where it's coming from. Tori, having better ears from her years of training, locates the source first. It comes from in front of the door located at the very front of the room. She looks up there, and the others follow her gaze. Up there are five Poes, but these are each different colors; red, blue, yellow, green, and purple. The purple one speaks in a voice that seems to emanate evil. "We are the spirits of the departed. We all met our ends in this temple. Now, we are doomed to haunt these halls forever, barring passage to the final chamber for all who enter. But before we dispose of you, pray tell me, who are you?"

Link is the first one to work up the courage to speak. "I am Link, the one in black is Sora, the Gerudo is Tori, and the one with the strange hat is Shane." "S-Shane? The chosen one!" the Poe stammers.

"What do you mean, 'chosen one'?" asks Shane, intrigued by the statement.

The Poe immediately regains its composure and says to the group. "I will tell you only if you can defeat all four of my brethren and return here. Then Shane must face me in combat. If he wins, then I shall tell you, and let you pass."

It disappears, and the other Poes exit through the side doors, red and yellow to the left, blue and green to the right. Shane says to the others, "Well guys, it looks like we need to split up now after all."

With that statement, the group splits up and heads after the fleeing Poes.

Chapter 19: Link and Sora

Link and Sora begin their journey into the heart of the Forest Temple to find the Poes by entering the door to their left. They enter a hallway inhabited by a lone Skulluta, which they quickly dispose of and move on into a large room, nearly half full with floating, flaming skulls. Sora rushes forward to attack one, but his blade simply bounces off, not even irritating the skull. Link goes over to him and says, "These things are Green Bubbles. You have to stun them before you can kill them. Just watch." He walks over to one of them and hits it with his shield. Its flame goes out and it falls to the floor and starts flapping around. Link then easily dispatches it with two swift sword strokes. "Oh, now I see." says Sora. He runs over and smashes a Bubble with the flat of his blade, and it does the same thing that the other did. Sora then dispatches it as easily as Link did. Now knowing how to defeat them, Sora launches himself into the battle with Link, and in a matter of minutes, all the Bubbles were disposed of. They hear a tone, and sure enough, a door next to them opens.

They enter a room with two staircases leading down two stories, and as they explore the room they notice many black portraits lining the walls. They reach the bottom and find the door leading to the next room is locked. Link checks his map, but no chests are marked on it. He and Sora begin to search the room, but to no avail. There is no key to be found. "Duh," exclaims Sora, "I should have thought of this before!" "What is it?" questions a curious Link. "My Keyblade. It can open any lock. It's the ultimate key." Sora walks over and inserts his key into the red lock and begins to turn it, but the Keyblade is pushed out. He tries it again, but with the same result. "Wait a second," says Link, "most locks I've encountered were blue, but this one is red. What's going on?" "I don't know." replies Sora. "Wait," says Link, "I have an idea." He plunges his sword into the keyhole with a smirk. There is a horrible screech, and the red Poe finally comes out of the lock. It shakes its head at them, then splits into four Poes and retreats into the four portraits lining the walls. Its image is frozen in a mocking stare for a moment, but they all soon change back to blackness. "Now what?!" exclaims Sora. "I think," says Link in return, "we have to get the Poe out of the pictures." "And how do you propose we do that?" answers Sora. "Hmm," says Link turning around to face away from the nearest picture, "I'm not sure." Suddenly, in a fluid motion, he whips around while taking out his bow and knocking an arrow, taking aim for about half a second, and letting the arrow fly. It embeds itself in the picture, which lets out a hideous shriek and disintegrates in a burst of flame. "That's how." Link says confidently. "Then I'd better let you take care of them," replies Sora, "I'm not much in the ranged weaponry department." Link repeats the process of turning away from the picture, then whipping out his bow and shooting it three more times, and the pictures are finally gone. They go back down the stairs to see if a key appeared, but they find that the Poe still isn't gone. It sees them, turns invisible, then launches its attack. Sora swiftly dodges the flames it throws at him, then tries to counter-attack, but his blade simply bounces off where the Poe is supposed to be. "Oh, come on!" yells Sora, "Link, how do we kill this one?" "Just wait until it turns visible again, then attack!" yells Link in response. The Poe launches several more fireballs at each of them, and then, finally, turns visible again. Link and Sora, waiting for this moment, leap forward to kill it soon, but they each only get one hit in before the Poe disappears once again with a cackle. They repeat this process only two more times, and the Poe is defeated, leaving only a red flame in its place. The flame retreats back to the main room, leaving Link and Sora with only one Poe left to defeat.

Sora goes forward, puts his Keyblade into the lock, and turns it, finally releasing the lock and leaving them free to move on. Once they do, they encounter two rooms containing nothing more than a few Green Bubbles, one room with a door on the wall, completely out of reach, and one twisted hallway, which they do not bother with for now, as there is no eye switch to hit. In the room past the twisted hall, they encounter a floor that resembles a giant chessboard, with a diamond shaped switch jutting out of the floor on the other side. Sora says to himself, "Piece of cake." and begins to walk out onto the floor, but Link restrains him. "Why can't I just go?" asks Sora indignantly. "I don't trust this place," replies Link, "it's just too easy." "Well," adds Sora, "why can't you just accept that this room is easy? Not every puzzle has to be difficult." "Just at least let me test it first." replies Link. He walks over to the corner of the room and finds a rock, about the size of his fist, and throws it onto the floor. There is a low rumbling noise, and suddenly, without warning, the ceiling comes crashing down onto the floor, leaving very few safe spots where the floor had degraded over time. "See?" said Link to an open-mouthed Sora, "That could have been you. A Sora-sandwich. Just let me hit the switch with my arrows." He pulls out his bow and takes careful aim, and releases. The arrow almost instantly hits an invisible barrier that flashes bright blue when the arrow impacts it. The arrow then lands on the floor and is promptly crushed by the falling ceiling. "So," says Sora to Link, "what else you got in that bag of tricks of yours?"

Chapter 20: Shane and Tori

Shane and Tori begin their journey into the heart of the Forest Temple to find the Poes by going into the door to the right. They first enter a hallway, with a Skulluta hanging from the ceiling. "So, have you ever used your powers to fight?" asks Shane. "No," comes the answer, "never. The only thing I know how to do right now is read minds." "OK then, try this. Focus on the Skulluta and say, Whirlwind." Tori does just this, and a barely visible whirlwind floats over to the Skulluta, jostles it slightly, and disappears. "OK," says Shane encouragingly, "not bad for a first try. This time though, say it with a bit more force." Tori, once again, follows Shane's instructions, and this time, it knocks the Skulluta off its web. "Very good! Now try this one. Focus on it once again, and say Ray." Tori looks at the Skulluta with a glare and says forcefully, "Ray!" A small cloud gathers over the Skulluta, and after about a second of gathering energy, a small bolt of electricity shoots down from the cloud and fries it. "Man, Tori, you're a natural. It seems like you've been doing this for a long time." "Well," says Tori in response, "I have always been good at battle, and I'm a quick learner besides." "And it's a good thing too, because I doubt I can get through this place without help. Well, if we wanna find those Poes, we'd best get going." They leave the hallway, and walk into a large, open room with vines on one side that lead up to an opening. They also notice a walkway high above them, unreachable for the moment. Seeing as it is the only way to move on, they walk over to the vine covered wall, only then to notice there are about four small Skullutas covering the walls. "You got a bow?" Shane asks Tori. "Nope, you?" comes the reply. "Well then, stand back, I'm gonna try something." Tori steps away from Shane, who raises his left hand and says, "Bolt." Several bolts of electricity shoot out of the palm of his hand and immediately kill the Skullutas clinging to the wall. He does this once more, and all the Skullutas are gone. "Shall we continue?" asks Shane as he begins to climb the wall, but Tori stops him. "Don't. There's an easier way." She pulls out her Longshot and uses it to get to the top very quickly. "Duh." says Shane to himself, and then uses his Longshot to much the same effect. They enter the next room, looking around its entire circumference, expecting nearly anything, but the one thing they do not expect happens. Bars close both doors, and four Stalfos fall from the ceiling. Tori yells to Shane, "You take two, I'll take two!" They each launch themselves at a skeleton, and the remaining two step back, as if respecting the duel. Tori's Stalfos launches a vicious jump attack, which Tori nimbly dodges, then strikes back with an attack of her own, but it merely scratches the reanimated skeleton. Shane, on the other hand, knowing exactly how these undead beings attack, is faring much better. He has easily finished off the first skeleton, and has moved on to the next one, although it is giving his much more trouble. This one doesn't seem to want to attack, merely content to defend against Shane's attacks. He is beginning to wonder why, when he sees the bones of the departed Stalfos stir once again. He yells to Tori, who has just chopped off the head of her foe, "Get up against the wall!" "Why?" "Just do it!" Tori quickly backs up and is plastered to the wall, watching the Stalfos' head roll back to its body and reattach itself, when she hears Shane scream at the top of his lungs, "Gaia!" A huge hole opens up in the center of the room, and giant rocks begin spewing out of it. Nearly every rock hits a Stalfos, and soon nearly every bone of each of the evil beings is shattered. Once the hole closes and the rocks stop, Shane falls to his knee. Tori quickly runs over to see if he is alright, and, sure enough, as soon as she reaches him, he stands. "Are you alright?" asks Tori. "Yeah," comes the response, "I'm fine, those group Psyenergies take a lot more energy, that's all. I'm fine, let's go before anything worse happens." They head to the door opposite from the one they used to enter, but a chest appears in the middle of the room. Shane goes to retrieve its contents, a small key. They leave the room, and head on to the next one, a room with three flights of stairs leading down and four black portraits lining the walls. They begin to walk down the first flight of stairs, but stop when they catch a glimpse of a disappearing green Poe. "Oh," says Shane with a new understanding of the purpose of the room, "the Poe is hiding in the pictures." "How?" asks Tori, "I didn't know they could do that." "Well," answers Shane, "my guess is that they possess the picture, and use it to see many parts of the room at once. You have to destroy all four portraits while the Poe is visible. Do you think you can use Bolt?" "Umm… I probably can, let me try it." She holds out her hand while focusing on the nearest portrait, and says, "Bolt." Small bolts of lightning shoot out of her palm and hit the black picture. "Good," says Shane, "That'll be helpful. Just yell if you need any help. And remember, the Poe will only appear while you are facing away, so either do it very quickly, or try attacking from far away." "OK, I'll do my best." Shane walks down the flight while Tori turns away from the blank picture. As he disappears from her view, he catches a small glimpse of green on the picture, and hears Tori yelling, "Bolt!" He turns his attention to the portrait closest to him, and barely sees the Poe disappearing from view. He chuckles to himself as he turns away from the unsuspecting Poe in the picture. He then quickly turns around, palm up, already halfway through the word, when he sees the framed Poe being struck by electricity, though it is clearly not his. He looks up the stairway to see Tori standing triumphantly, with the faintest swirls of smoke still floating away from her hand. "See? Told you I was a quick learner." "Wow, you are very good at this. You have true potential, Tori." "Really? Coming from someone like you, that's a major compliment." "Well, I guess we'd better finish of these pictures. You go stand at the bottom and wait for the Poe. You're a better swordsman than me." "OK, but hurry up, I don't like to wait." Tori walks off down the two remaining flights of stairs while Shane lines himself up for the next shot at the Poe. He turns around and electrocutes the picture, which disintegrates on contact. He repeats the process on the remaining picture, and then rushes down to meet Tori at the bottom, only to see her dodging the Poe's attack easily. The specter then turns visible for but half a second, but Tori had seen her opportunity before it was presented, and was already rushing to attack the ghost. She gets but one hit in before the Poe turns invisible once again. Shane runs into the small room to help defeat the invisible foe, but it is not needed, for Tori has already attacked it once more, and finished it off. It falls to the floor and disappears, leaving only a green flame behind, which immediately heads to the main room, and moments later, a chest appears. "Man, I wish I was that good of a swordsman." says a dejected looking Shane. "Hey," replies Tori, "don't worry about it. You'll get better with practice and time. Considering the amount of practice you have actually had, you are quite good. It seems like you have practiced for years. Are you sure you never used a sword before you came to Hyrule?" "Yes, I'm quite sure. I might have an answer for that though. Ever since I came here, it seems like I have more energy. It's like the very air is making me stronger. Yeah, I know, it sounds weird, but that's the best way to describe it. Anyways, let's get a move on. One Poe left." They move on to the next room, but not before obtaining the key from the chest.

Chapter 21: The Last Poe: Pt. 1

Link and Sora, both putting all their dungeon-exploring skills to use, are trying to think of a way to get past or around the deadly floor. "But what if we just ran straight through?" asks Sora. "No, that won't work. You saw what happened to my arrow." answers Link. "Yes, to your flying arrow, maybe it won't be working if we are touching the ground." "True, maybe not, but then the floor will crush us." "Wait, see those holes in the falling part?" "Yeah, what about them?" "Well, if we are on those squares when it falls, we won't even by touched by it." "Sora, that's genius! But, what about the maze?" "Well, do we have anything that can let us see it?" "No, I don't think so…. Maybe the Lens of Truth." "Well, just try it." Link pulls out the Lens of Truth and begins to look through it. "Well? See anything?" inquires Sora. "Yes, and you won't believe this!" replies Link. "That's for me to decide, just spit it out!" "Well, the maze seems to be just straight lines, turning at the holes in the ceiling." "You're right, I don't believe it. That has to be one of the strangest coincidences I have ever come across." "Well, I've seen stranger. You kind of get used to having these things happen after a while." "But who is going to go across?" "I'll do it. I have the Lens, so it shouldn't be that hard." "Well, here goes nothing." Link walks over to the edge of the checkered floor, lays down his shield, bow, and bomb bag, but keeps his sword, just in case, and then kneels down into a runner's stance facing the first hole. He takes off at full speed, and barely makes it before the floor comes crashing down around him. He lines up once again, and as soon as the ceiling lifts up high enough, takes off to the next hole. He repeats this process until he reaches the switch, then hits it triumphantly. There is a creaking noise as the hallway is twisted back into its normal shape. Link then comes back, dodging the ceiling, and finally returns to the safe floor. He picks up his equipment and says to Sora, "Let's go."

They retrace their steps into the now straight hallway, and find that the door in the following room is now accessible. They enter it, to find a room with a huge black picture on one wall, but nothing else in it. Link and Sora have a quiet laugh at this feeble attempt by the Poe to hide from them. Link walks over to the center of the room, lines himself up across from the Poe, and turns away from the portrait. Sora turns away as well, not wanting to ruin Link's shot. Link, as he had done four times before, whips around, brings up his bow, knocks an arrow, and fires almost in the same motion, but this time, the picture is not destroyed. It stays there, and as Link is wondering what happened, he hears a rumbling, and sees a shadow overshadowing his. He quickly jumps out of the way, and as he is still in the air, he sees a huge block come crashing down where he was moments ago. "Sora, what happened?" "I don't know! The blocks just fell!" "Well, go get up on that ledge and see if you can see what's on top of these blocks!" Sora climbs up on the ledge, and shouts to Link, "There's pictures on them! It looks like a Poe, but they're out of order!" "Out of order… That sounds like… No, it can't be, that's way too simple. Well, maybe it's not always as complicated as I think. It's worth a try… Hey, Sora! We need to make this into a picture of a Poe, tell me what blocks to move!" "OK, I'll do my best!" With Link moving blocks, and Sora shouting directions, they soon only have one block left to move until the Poe appears. "Sora, you come down here and push this one." "Why? We're almost done, why change now?" "Because, if I'm right, the Poe will appear in that picture frame, and I need a good shot." "OK then, why didn't you say that from the start?" Sora jumps down and gets in position to push the block into place. "Ready, Link?" "Yes, push it now." Sora does so, and the blocks start to float upward. They hover about a foot off the ground, and suddenly turn sideways and embed themselves in the blank frame. Link, waiting for this moment, lets loose his shot. It lodges itself in the newly formed picture, which immediately disintegrates into nothingness. A yellow Poe appears directly in front of them, and almost instantly fades away, leaving only the torch visible. The torch starts to spin around and advance as the Poe begins its attack. Link and Sora both dodge out of the way, and as the spinning slows, the Poe reappears to get its bearings and begin its attack anew. In this moment, Link and Sora both attack with a powerful jump strike, which the combined force of the two is too much for the Poe to handle. It is destroyed, leaving only a yellow flame behind, which retreats to the main room. Link says to Sora, "Well, we'd better get back to the first room now. No point in staying any longer." They see the door they came through is now barred, so they leave through the second door, to find themselves on a balcony along with Tori, who is watching in horror at the fight below.

Chapter 22: The Last Poe: Pt. 2

Shane and Tori, having just defeated one of the two Poes they were after, are moving on to the next room, the one previous having nothing of interest to them. This room contains nothing more than a door on the ceiling where the left wall meets it, inaccessible as of now, and a door directly ahead. Since they obviously cannot reach the one on the ceiling, they head to the one directly ahead of them, but before they can reach it, Shane sees a shadow growing on the floor beneath him. Instantly recognizing what it is, as he has spent long, frustrating times trying to dodge them, he quickly jumps forward and dodges it. Tori, on the other hand, not knowing what it is, continues to walk forward, directly onto the spot where Shane was moments ago. The Wallmaster chooses that second to strike. It grabs Tori, and is in the process of bringing her back up, when it feels cold metal digging into its flesh. It drops to the ground and lets go of Tori, then starts convulsing in agony. Shane stabs it once more and puts the creature out of its misery. "You have to watch out for those things, Tori. If you get caught, they take you back to the beginning of the dungeon. Horrible really, and very, very frustrating," says Shane with a knowing grin, "and, of course, I couldn't come back for you." "Thank you." says a still breathless Tori. "No problem, just pay attention later on. Well, let's go." They enter the door, watching for any shadows on the ground, and enter a twisted hallway, followed by a room with a rotating platform in the middle, and an eye switch covered with ice on one side. "Hey, Shane, how are we supposed to hit that?" "I don't know. Let me think for a minute." Shane starts pacing around on the small square of land they can stand on. He does this for a few minutes, and Tori is about to ask when he will be finished, when he suddenly exclaims, "I've got it!" "What? How?" asks Tori. "Stay here." answers Shane. He waits until the platform is within range, then jumps on. He pulls out a sword and weighs it in his left hand, trying to find a good balance point, and finally holds it in his left hand. "How to melt the ice," he says to Tori, "while still triggering the switch, and not using an irreplaceable was the problem. I thought, there had to be a simple solution to it, its always simple yet ingenious, then it hit me." "What? What are you going to do?" inquires a still puzzled Tori. "Just watch," comes the answer, "its really quite simple." He balances the sword on his palm, and says, "Flare." He holds it in his hand like a dagger, rears back, and lets it fly. The blade flies along a perfect path and deeply embeds itself in the ice, melting most and leaving only a small layer over the eye. "Now what?" says Tori, "You just lost one sword, and the switch still isn't hit." "Ah," says a confident Shane, "that's where the plan is so ingenious. Catch." Tori, thinking the last word was directed at her, instinctively puts up her hands, but instead sees a giant hand reaching out to retrieve the sword. "See?" says Shane, dusting the few small ice particles left on his now cooled sword off, "That's the key. Psyenergy." He repeats the process of heating and throwing the sword once more, and the switch is finally triggered. They hear the creaking of the hallway being straightened out. "Shall we?" asks Shane as he hops back to where Tori is. All this gets him is a shove and a glare from an indignant Tori. They walk through the hallway into a circular room with only one other door, located on the other side of the room. The only thing in the entire room is a solitary blue Poe, watching and waiting. "Wow, this should be easy." says Tori. "I don't know," replies a wary Shane, "something just doesn't feel right." They walk up to the Poe, who utters a strange cackle, and promptly splits into eight individual Poes. "Told you something was wrong." remarks Shane.

The Poes quickly move, as is compelled by the same mind, and surround the two intruders. Shane and Tori start slashing at all the Poes, but nothing works, since they do not know which one to attack. The Poes tighten the circle, and Shane and Tori are forced to retreat. As soon as they leave the circle and head to a wall, the Poes disappear. "What are we supposed to do?" asks Shane. "I don't know, I've never seen Poes act this way." "Wait," says Shane, "this seems familiar for some reason. Like I've seen it before. I've got it. Just trust me and follow my lead." He heads out into the middle of the room once again, and the Poes appear. Shane's roving eyes quickly spot what they were looking for. One of the Poes turned around right as it appeared. He sheathes his swords and reaches out his left hand towards the Poe. "Bolt." A bolt of electricity shoots from his palm into the Poe. "Heh," he says to himself, "just like always." The Poes disappear once again, and Tori, now realizing what is going on, jumps into the fray with Shane. "Tori, come here." says Shane in the momentary reprieve. "What is it?" "OK, here's the plan, I'm going to douse the Poe in water, which alone wont hurt it, but as soon as I do that, you-" "Hit it with Bolt, right?" "Right, lets go." By this time, the Poes have appeared, and Shane, having seen which one is the leader, showers it with water. It shakes itself, and, seeing no threat from water, moves closer. Tori chooses this moment to unleash her Bolt. It shocks the Poe, and it is visibly blackened and shaken. "Once more." says Shane. Once more, the Poes appear, but this time, all but one spin. "Shane, which one?" "This one." He sprays a Poe from the crowd, seemingly out of random. Tori, trusting this move, unleashes her Bolt on the drenched Poe. The specter, finally defeated, lets out an ear splitting wail. It finally falls to the ground, like the others, leaving only a blue flame behind. This flame quickly retreats to the main room. Shane and Tori, seeing the door they entered through barred, have no choice but to move on through the opposite door. After entering it, they find themselves on the balcony they saw when they were walking through the first room. They walk along it to the other side, and enter the door there. They find themselves on a ledge overlooking the room they met the Poes in. "Well," says Shane while hopping down into the newly sand-filled room, "looks like it's my turn."

Chapter 23: The Chosen One

As Shane hits the sandy ground, the purple Poe appears and speaks to him. "It seems you have defeated my brethren." it says, looking at the four lit torches, "I must congratulate you, I did not even expect you to make it this far. But, I fear you will go no farther. To obtain the Forest Medallion and my knowledge, you must defeat me, a feat, I must say, I do not think you are capable of. This will be a straightforward duel, a fight to the death. There will be no trickery of any kind, no faking of defeat or surrender, anything of that sort. You may use any skills you currently possess, as will I. I will not, however, turn invisible. Even as a spirit I can keep my honor. Are these terms agreeable to you?" "Yes, I would have to say they are. In any case, you are being more than fair." "Then, we begin!"

The Poe floats back, bringing out its long broadsword and circular shield, while Shane does the same, unsheathing his dual blades. The Poe rushes him first, giving Shane little time to react. He brings his blades up in an X, blocking the Poe's slash, but knocking him off balance from the mere force of the blow. He turns around and lunges at the specter, which jumps back, but not quite in time, and receives a small gash on its shield arm. It whips its sword directly at Shane's head, a blow which Shane barely blocks, but the force of the attack is so great that Shane nearly cuts himself with his own blade. While they are locked in this battle of strength, Link and Sora enter the balcony Tori is still standing on, watching this turn of events in horror. They rush over to the ledge to look at the ongoing fight, see Shane look over at them, and the Poe taking advantage of Shane's distraction by bashing him in the face with his shield. Shane, caught off balance by the blow, staggers backward and falls down into a large pile of sand. The Poe floats over to him and places his sword on Shane's neck. "Any last words?" asks the Poe menacingly. Shane, his mind racing, frantically tries to think of a way out of it. As his brain begins to run out of ideas, he realizes that his salvation is closer than he ever thought. "Yeah," he says with a very small grin on his face, "I got one. Sand." With that word, he dissolves into the sand and becomes a part of it. The Poe, looking as bewildered as a ghost can look, carefully searches the area directly in front of him for any sign of Shane, not seeing the shape materializing directly behind him. It senses something is amiss, and pulls up its shield just in time to block what would have been a mortal blow. It wheels around and tries to attack Shane, but he has already jumped back, and is halfway through a word. "Plasma!" A bolt of searing hot plasma shoots through the small distance between the two with amazing speed. It hits the Poe, who is not expecting the blow. A burning smell cuts through the air as the Poe falls to the ground. Shane begins to walk over to finish it off, but it gets up before he takes more that two steps and makes a final lunge at him. Shane easily dodges the weak blow, and with a flourish plunges both blades into the already weakened Poe. It lets out a banshee-like shriek as it dies, and falls to the ground. "Now," says Shane while standing over the dying Poe, "what can you tell me about me being the chosen one?" "All I know," says the Poe with its last figurative breath, "is written in the journal you will find in the Medallion chamber. Its last pages chronicle what I heard of the conversation between Corvus and a man I could not identify, and may help you in your quest. Look for the symbol of the Forest Sage on the wall. You must defeat Corvus! He and the mysterious man betrayed my fellow warriors and me in this very room. He wished to wait in ambush for you, but my band of mercenaries wanted to keep our honor by defeating you in a fair fight. In a fit of rage, he killed us all with one spell. He left us to haunt these halls until our task was completed, or we were all defeated. Do not underestimate him; he is more powerful than all of you combined. Now, I must go. Thank you, chosen one, for freeing me…" With an exhalation of breath, the final Poe disappears, never to haunt the world again. "Well," yells Shane to the others, "come on! I want to see what's in that journal!" The other three jump down to the sandy floor and follow Shane into the Medallion chamber.

Chapter 24: The Medallion Chamber

Upon entering the Medallion chamber, they find a much less regal looking room than they hoped for. It actually looks quite shabby, with vines hanging from every wall, the walls have large chunks missing, like there was a fight here, and the pedestal in the center of the room is quite ancient looking as well. They approach the pedestal and see the Forest Medallion floating inside a fragile looking glass case. They approach the pedestal, and Link attempts to remove the glass case, but fails at it. Shane says to the others, "You keep working on this, I'm gonna go try and find that journal." He walks off, following the wall in search of the imprint of the Forest Medallion on the wall. After only a few minutes of searching, he finds it and pries out the brick. In a hidden alcove, he finds a thick bound journal. As he leafs through the first few pages, he finds that the Poe was telling the truth. It was formerly a man named (insert Latin word for mercenary or some other word here), and the leader of a band of mercenaries feared throughout Hyrule. He skips to the end, and find that they were hired by Corvus about thirty years ago to assist him in taking over Hyrule Castle. He begins at the conversation by Corvus and the unknown man.

_Yesterday, I listened in on a conversation Corvus had with a man I could not recognize. The man was talking about a 'chosen one' named Shane, and how he and his group were the only ones capable of stopping Corvus from ruling all of Hyrule. He said that the only way to prevent his from doing this was to defeat him as soon as possible, before his true power was realized. As well, only a Triforce wielder can open the impenetrable cases surrounding the Medallions, so, unless he doesn't know this, we can eliminate another potential threat at the same time. Now, Corvus is a powerful mage as well as an amazing swordsman, so this 'Shane' must be a strangely powerful individual if he has the potential to stop Corvus's rule, but, this power, coupled with that stored in the Medallions, could very well be enough. This is why he asked us later on to wait here in the Forest Temple for this person to arrive and kill him before he could defeat him. This, I refused. We may be mercenaries, but our honor is not for sale, at any price. He seemed disappointed in us at first, but it quickly passed, which is strange for him, for I have witnessed him having fits of intense rage for reasons much less important than this. He has told us to meet him here in the Medallion Chamber of the Forest Temple to discuss our future working for him. I hear his footsteps approaching, so I shall hide this journal away, as I highly doubt he should like to know I have been listening in on his conversations. I shall record what went on during this conversation about the future of our partnership as soon as it is over. _

Shane, still in slight awe over this discovery, runs over to the others, still attempting, although in vain, to open the case containing the Forest Medallion. "Guys, you wont believe this!" "What?" ask the three in unison. "Well, it says in this journal that us four are the only ones who can overthrow Corvus's rule." "But," cuts in Link, "Corvus doesn't rule. He's not even really a factor in Hyrule anymore, he just lurks in that castle of his. Now, he's really just a legend of the recent past, a nightmare long over. We haven't even seen his face in ten years." "Well," says Shane, "that's kind of weird, actually. That's the time this final entry is dated, and in it, the writer talks like Corvus is but a simple step away from controlling it all." "But he doesn't." interjects Link, "As you can plainly see, Corvus does not rule Hyrule. I'm telling you, no matter what any twenty year old book says, Corvus does not have control of Hyrule! Now, come over here and help us get the lid off this pedestal!" "Oh, that, I read in here that only a Triforce wielder could open the case, and I'm assuming that means you, Link." Link looks all over the case for some kind of marking, and finally sees a Triforce symbol on the top. He places his palm on the marking, and suddenly the clear covering retracts, leaving the Medallion in open air for the first time in centuries. He grabs it on instinct, and as he does, he feels the essence of it flowing through him momentarily before the sensation disappears. "One down, five to go."

Chapter 25: The Library

"Remind me again why we came here." says Tori, while dodging traffic in Hyrule Town. "I told you already," says Link, "we have to go through this place to get to Hyrule Castle." "Then why are we going there?" asks Sora, "You never did tell us that, only that we needed to." "Yeah," cuts in Shane, "I think we deserve an answer." "You're right," answers Link, "you do, but I'm not even sure of exactly what I'm looking for, but for some reason I felt compelled to go there. Maybe we'll find whatever it is when we get there..." "Come on, Link." says Shane, "I'm completely exhausted, and I'm sure everyone else it too. We need a rest." "Yeah." chimes in Sora. "Sounds good." joins in Tori. "What are you talking about?" asks Link, "I feel great. Better than I have in a long time. I could go for days." "Really? But, you should be exhausted, unless… No, it can't be, can it?" says Shane, mostly to himself. "What?" inquires Link. "Maybe… the Medallion gave you an energy boost. Whoever gets it obtains the energy inside it, and gets more stamina, energy, and strength. Basically, it's a huge energy reserve inside you that always gives you more energy than you would have before, and, possibly, though we would have to test it, gives a huge energy boost when called upon." "Wow," says Link while quickly pacing in a circle, "the applications for this power are immense, it would help us a lot." "Yeah," replies Shane, "and if the Medallions can do that, maybe there are even more things they are capable of, such as enhancing the abilities depending on the Medallion." "OK," interrupts Tori, "so it looks like the Medallions hold a lot of power. That much power shouldn't be held by one person, because if they were captured alive and turned, or put under some mind control spell, the devastation would be horrible. I think we should split the Medallions between the four of us. There are six Medallions, so to split them among the four of us, two will have to get one, and two will have to get two. I only need one, the Spirit Medallion. I think Shane should get two." "Oh," cuts in Shane, "dibs on Light and Shadow!" "Then who should be the other one to get two?" asks Link. "You can Link," says Sora, "I only need one." "Are you sure?" inquires Tori. "Yeah," answers Sora, "Link is from here, so he deserves to get two." "Well," replies Link hesitantly, "if you're sure. I've already got the Forest Medallion, so which one do you want? The only two that aren't taken are Fire and Water. If really doesn't matter to me which other one I get, so, take your pick." "I think I'll take Fire. It sounds powerful, and I could use some extra power." "Now that that's settled," says Tori, "can we go to the castle library now?" "Oh, sure," replies Link, "lets go." In a matter of minutes they reach the castle, and with Link leading the way, make their way through the mazelike castle passageways to the library. As soon as they enter, Shane says to the others, "I'm gonna go look for some books on the Medallions and their abilities." "OK," answers Link, "but we won't stay here for very long." Shane begins to walk off down one of the many aisles of books, when Tori begins to run after him, yelling, "Wait! Wait for me!" Shane stops and looks back to see her running after him, and pauses long enough for her to catch up, then begins walking again. "So, why are you going with me this time?" asks Shane. "Well," replies Tori, as she begins to walk beside him, "you seem as out of your element here as I do, and it looked like you had no clue where you were going." "Then where am I going?" "Into the fiction section. That's where they keep the really weird books, about imaginary lands with no magic, and these strange machines that allow people to fly, weird stuff like that." "Yeah, I'll bet it's weird. Anyways, you seem to know your way around. Have you been here before?" "Only once, but I never forget a place. Turn left here. That's one of the reasons I'm the leader of the guard at such a young age. It's both a blessing and a curse." "How is it a curse?" "Well, if I see something, I can never forget it, no matter how hard I try. I was watching out of a window nearly ten years ago when I came here, and I saw Corvus arrive here and begin a slaughter of the innocent townsfolk. The Royal Guard arrived along with a few Knights, but it didn't matter. He swatted them away like flies. Only when the full force of the Knights arrived did he flee. That's also the last time anyone has ever seen him in Hyrule." By this time, she is almost in tears, and Shane, not quite sure what to do, wraps one arm around her, saying, "It's OK, don't cry." Tori quickly dries her eyes and says, "I'm sorry, that doesn't usually happen. I just lost control for a moment." "That's alright, it happens to everyone. I've had something horrible happen to me before too…" "What happened?" "Well, I'd rather not recall it, but I can't help but remem- oh, here we are, the history section." says Shane, looking up at the sign hanging from the shelf. "Wait, you can read Hylian?" "Yeah, I'm a little rusty, but I can read most things." "But, that means… Come with me." "What? Where?" "Just follow me." says Tori as she runs off. Shane follows her, yelling, "Where are we going?" to which she answers, "Just trust me!" They run for quite some time, and as they do, Shane can see the books are getting older, and the shelves more bare. They reach the far end of the library, and there are no shelves anymore. All that remain are tables covered in parchment and a few scattered books. "Why are we here?" asks Shane. "Because," replies Tori, "you can read Hylian." "But I thought everyone could read it…" "No, Hylian is a dead language, the last speaker died long ago. If you can read it, you can read these pages and unlock countless mysteries." "Wow, are you sure about this? It seems strange that no one in Hyrule can read Hylian. I thought it was the native language. You see it everywhere." "No, what you are thinking of is the Gerudo language. The letters look similar, but if you apply it to Hylian, its just gibberish. But you, if you truly can read Hylian, we could learn things that have been lost for millennia." "And we could learn about the true potential of the Medallions!" "Yes, now help me search for anything bearing a Medallion symbol on it." They begin to search through the many ancient writings, and Shane finally finds something with all the Medallions on it. "Come here, Tori, I found something." "What does it say?" "I don't know, give me a minute. Well, all I can make out at first glance is that it was written by a man named Veritas." "Oh, I've heard of him. He was a famed scholar, and he died right after the language transition, from Hylian to what we use today. The only known record of him is that he was extremely intelligent, and conducted some sort of research on the Medallions, to discover their powers. That might be it." "OK, give me a little while, and I'll see what I can learn."

Time passes, and the minutes tick slowly by. After about an hour of deciphering the message, Shane looks up at Tori with a wide-eyed stare. "You won't believe this." "My whole world has been turned upside-down, I'm ready to believe just about anything right now." "OK then, here goes. The Medallions draw their power directly from the Triforce. They use its power to give their holders more energy, strength, you get the picture. They also sense when their wielder is in danger, and give him a huge boost in power. But that's not the best part. The Medallions, they give their users new abilities. With Forest, you can speak to animals, with Fire, you can manipulate flames, with Water, you can swim like a Zora, never needing to take a breath, with Shadow, the user can become cloaked in shadow and disappear from sight, basically becoming invisible, and with Spirit, you can see and speak with ghosts." Tori lets out a low whistle. "Wow, that is just… wow. But what about the Light Medallion? What's its power?" "Hmm, I don't know, it doesn't seem to make any mention of it… Wait, here's something. It says that he could not test Light, as it was lost." "But that's not right, we know exactly where it is now, it is safely stored in the Temple of Light, in the Sacred Realm. Woah, that's bad." "What's so bad about it? We can just walk in and out, if it's in the Sacred Realm." "You don't know about it, do you?" "Know about what?" "The Sacred Realm. Are you sure you don't know?" "No, I don't, just tell me." "The Sacred Realm is completely overrun by demons. It is safe to no one, not even the Sages can go there alone anymore."


End file.
